1427: A toast to something beautiful flapping in the wind by J. Hope Stein

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
Episode: 1427: “A toast to something beautiful flapping in the wind” by J. Hope Stein
Host: Maggie Smith
Date: January 5, 2026

In this poignant episode, host Maggie Smith explores the emotional landscape of early motherhood, using J. Hope Stein's poem as a springboard for reflection. Smith recalls her own memories from her daughter's infancy—moments marked by exhaustion, wonder, and transformation. Through the poem and her insights, Smith illuminates the bittersweet passage of time and the deep, sometimes conflicting emotions that accompany mothering a newborn.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Fourth Trimester & Early Motherhood

[00:32 – 02:10]

• Maggie Smith begins by recalling the tumultuous “fourth trimester” after giving birth—an often overlooked phase encompassing the baby's first three months outside the womb.
  • “Once upon a time I was a new mother with a baby girl in my arms and I was her whole world.” – Maggie Smith [00:32]
• She describes the profound bewilderment shared by both infants and their new parents:
  • “Three trimesters are spent in the mother's body, bobbing around like a little fish. But the fourth trimester is when everyone is adapting to life in the outside world.” – Maggie Smith [00:48]
• Smith candidly discusses the struggles—exhaustion, loss of solitude, tensions with a partner, and the confusion of forging a new identity as a parent.
  • “I loved my daughter and I missed my solitude. I loved her father and I resented his freedom. I loved my life and I didn't know how to live it.” – Maggie Smith [01:16]
  • “The first three months, the first six months, if I'm honest, were really difficult.” – Maggie Smith [01:06]
• Memory is both selective and merciful, erasing the sharpest edges while preserving small, sensory treasures:
  • “We forget the missed naps and 2am and 3am and 4am cluster feedings... But if I close my eyes and take a deep breath, I can remember the smell of the top of my daughter's head and the feeling of it cupped in the palm of my hand. And those two things alone are enough to make me weep.” – Maggie Smith [01:30–02:00]

2. The Poem: “A toast to something beautiful flapping in the wind” by J. Hope Stein

[02:15 – 03:31]

• The episode’s center is the reading of Stein’s poem, which beautifully conjures fleeting, tactile moments from a newborn’s earliest days.
  • Opening with ambiguous “blue”—a bird, a bag—Stein blurs the lines between the literal and the poetic to express shifting perception amid new motherhood.
• The poem expresses both the isolation and intimacy of the mother-infant bond:
  • “Everyone is sleeping except Una and the ocean. Una and the ocean.” – J. Hope Stein [02:49]
• Metaphors reinforce the sense of transformation and protection:
  • “Spending time with a baby is spending time with something that has lived her entire life in an ocean and just sprouted legs for land. I am Copernicus using the planet of my body to umbrella the wind as she feeds.” – J. Hope Stein [03:03]
• The poem merges exhaustion and wonder—the mother marking the passage of time with both affection and physical toll:
  • “I tell time by counting teeth marks around the crooked nipple.” – J. Hope Stein [03:29]

3. Reflection: The Passage of Time

[02:06–02:14; 03:32]

• Smith draws a touching parallel between the long days and short years of parenting, and how poetry can instantly transport us back to cherished, difficult moments, even as time passes swiftly.
  • “Long days, but short years, as they say.” – Maggie Smith [02:13]
• There’s a sense that poetry, like motherhood, makes otherwise fleeting experiences endure in memory and feeling.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Once upon a time I was a new mother with a baby girl in my arms and I was her whole world.” – Maggie Smith [00:32]
• “I loved my daughter and I missed my solitude. I loved her father and I resented his freedom. I loved my life and I didn't know how to live it.” – Maggie Smith [01:16]
• “Everyone is sleeping except Una and the ocean. Una and the ocean.” – J. Hope Stein [02:49]
• “Spending time with a baby is spending time with something that has lived her entire life in an ocean and just sprouted legs for land. I am Copernicus using the planet of my body to umbrella the wind as she feeds.” – J. Hope Stein [03:03]
• “I tell time by counting teeth marks around the crooked nipple.” – J. Hope Stein [03:29]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:32 – Maggie’s personal recollection of early motherhood
• 01:16 – Honest admission of mixed emotions in parenthood
• 02:13 – Reflection on the paradox of “long days, short years”
• 02:15 – Reading of “A toast to something beautiful flapping in the wind”
• 02:49 – “Everyone is sleeping except Una and the ocean...”
• 03:03 – Copernicus/body metaphor and new motherhood
• 03:29 – “Counting teeth marks around the crooked nipple”

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Tone & Style

Reflective and intimate, the episode invites listeners to pause amid daily routines and consider the gifts and aches of tending new life. Smith’s language is candid, poetic, and deeply personal, mirroring the poem’s emotional honesty.

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This episode is a meditation on parenthood’s vulnerability, transformation, and the power of poetry to distill memory and emotion. Even for those without firsthand experience of parenthood, Smith’s reflections and Stein’s imagery invite empathy, compassion, and a renewed sense of wonder in the everyday.

Transcript

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Foreign I'm Maggie Smith and this is the Slowdown. Once upon a time I was a new mother with a baby girl in my arms and I was her whole world. It was 17 years ago, but sometimes I swear I can transport myself back there just by closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. I remember reading that a baby's first three months of life are called the fourth trimester. Three trimesters are spent in the mother's body, bobbing around like a little fish. But the fourth trimester is when everyone is adapting to life in the outside world. The babies seem bewildered, trying to adjust to nursing and sleeping, but I think parents are just as bewildered. The physical and emotional recovery from labor is intense on top of caring for another human being around the clock. The first three months, the first six months, if I'm honest, were really difficult. I was exhausted, depleted, emotional. I loved my daughter and I missed my solitude. I loved her father and I resented his freedom. I loved my life and I didn't know how to live it. Mercifully, we all forget much of the fourth trimester. We forget the missed naps and 2am and 3am and 4am cluster feedings. We forget the creature like newborn cry and the bad latches and the desperate calls to the lactation specialist. We forget so much. But if I close my eyes and take a deep breath, I can remember the smell of the top of my daughter's head and the feeling of it cupped in the palm of my hand. And those two things alone are enough to make me weep. She is turning 17 and she is taller than me and she is still and always my baby. Today's poem transported me back to the long days when my baby girl and I were the whole universe. Long days, but short years, as they say. A toast to something beautiful flapping in the Wind by J. Hope Stein to something beautiful flapping in the wind above the beach houses a blue bird. No, a blue bag to her breath. Raindrops in the begonia bed. My eyesight is rainstorms. Drop drop to 4am her first ocean everyone is sleeping except Una and the ocean. Una and the ocean. I try to explain in whale song. I try to explain in cloud and water. Droplet drop drop Spending time with a baby is spending time with something that has lived her entire life in an ocean and just sprouted legs for land. I am Copernicus using the planet of my body to umbrella the wind as she feeds. Ouch. I stick my fingers in her mouth and she's grown sharp little fish teeth drop. Everyone is sleeping except Oona and the ocean. Una and the ocean and the little fish teeth. Drop drop drop drop drop. I tell time by counting teeth marks around the crooked nipple. The Slowdown is a production of American Public Media in partnership with a Poetry Foundation. To get a poem delivered to you daily, go to slowdownshow.org and sign up for our newsletter. Find us on instagram slowdownshow and blueskylowdownshow.org. Foreign. Maggie here, host of the Slowdown Listening to and reading poetry helps us find our footing in an uncertain world, especially during challenging times. You can help keep these moments of poetry and reflection going by making a gift today. Visit slowdownshow. Org Donate.