1428: In Defense of “Candelabra with Heads” by Nicole Sealey - The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Summary4 min read

Episode Overview

Episode Title: In Defense of “Candelabra with Heads” by Nicole Sealey
Host: Maggie Smith
Podcast: The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
Release Date: January 6, 2026

This episode centers on the craft and philosophy of poetic revision, using Nicole Sealey’s poem “In Defense of ‘Candelabra with Heads’” as a focal point. Host Maggie Smith discusses her personal affection for revision, the tensions inherent in rewriting, and how Sealey’s poem openly examines the artistic process, confronting both creative doubt and the persistence of historical trauma through ekphrastic poetry.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Nature of Revision in Writing

Revision as a Creative High: Maggie Smith opens by expressing her love for revision, even more than the “rush of the new idea.”
- “Revision is my favorite part of the writing process.” [01:00]
- She enjoys the “creative problem solving that revision entails,” quoting Coleridge: “Poetry is the best words in the best order.” [01:18]
The Dynamic Tension of Drafting and Reworking
- Smith discusses how revision is both a process of discovery and a potential pitfall, acknowledging the risk of overworking a piece:
  “We can polish it dull. Sometimes we need to go back in order to move forward.” [02:00]
- She frames revision as both magical and fraught, a “push and pull” between the original spark and the pursuit of perfection.

2. The Poem as Process: Nicole Sealey’s Reflection

"Candelabra with Heads"—Poem about a Poem
- Smith introduces Sealey’s poem as a meta-commentary on revision, and as an ekphrastic response to Thomas Hirschhorn’s sculpture “Candelabra with Heads.”
- Sealey’s poem grapples with her choice to remove the concluding line—then later, to restore it.
  - “This poet revised her poem of the same name to remove the last line, but later went back and reinstated it.” [02:33]
Exposing Doubt and Decision
- Smith explains the poem’s self-awareness about self-sufficiency and the poet’s relationship with her readers.
  - “The original, the one included here, is an example of, I’m told, of a poem that can speak for itself but loses faith in its ability to do so by ending with a thesis question.” [03:01]
- She quotes Yeats—“A poem should click shut like a well made box” [03:14]—and explores Sealey’s willingness to defy this advice for the sake of questioning.

The Read Poem: “In Defense of ‘Candelabra with Heads’” by Nicole Sealey

(Poem begins at [03:27])

Key moments and lines include:

On Artistic Intent vs. Reader Perception
- “Not because I don’t trust you, dear reader, or my own abilities. I ask because the imagination would have us believe, much like faith.” [04:00]
Confronting Historical Violence & Art’s Role
- “You should know that human limbs burn like branches and branches like human limbs. Only after man began hanging man from trees, then setting him on fire…” [04:15]
Projecting Hope into the Future
- “A hundred years from now... may someone happen upon the question in question. May that lucky someone be black and so far removed from the verb lynch that she be dumbfounded by its meaning.” [04:35]
- Invoking hope that future generations inherit imagination, not memory, for trauma:
  “May her imagination, not her memory, run wild.” [04:55]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Maggie Smith on Revision’s Risk and Utility:
- “We can look so hard for the finished piece that we believe waits for us inside the messy draft that we scare it off. We can polish it dull.” [02:00]
On Open-Endedness in Poetry:
- Discussing Sealey’s deliberate use of a “thesis question” to finish her poem, Smith observes,
  “This tension, this push and pull, is exactly what makes revision dynamic and exciting.” [01:45]
Nicole Sealey’s Hope for the Future:
- “May that lucky someone be black and so far removed from the verb lynch that she be dumbfounded by its meaning.” [04:45]
- The poem closes with a wish that a future reader’s “imagination, not her memory, run wild.” [05:00]

Timestamps for Important Segments

01:00 – Maggie Smith discusses the joy and challenge of revision
02:00 – The risks of over-revision; the need to sometimes revisit earlier drafts
03:01 – Introduction to Nicole Sealey’s approach and reference to Yeats’s “well made box”
03:27 – Full reading of “In Defense of ‘Candelabra with Heads’”
04:00-05:00 – Key lines from Sealey’s poem, addressing faith, historical violence, and hope for future interpretation

Overall Tone and Takeaways

Maggie Smith’s tone is contemplative, warm, and quietly rigorous, modeling both practical craft insight and deep empathy for the burden and promise of art. The episode invites listeners not only to experience Sealey’s poem, but also to reflect on their own processes of revision, memory, and creative faith.

Listeners are left with a sense of poetry as both a vessel for history and a site for hope—the very heart of The Slowdown’s mission to “lean into wonder, and joy, and truth, and to find hope—to keep hoping.” [00:16]

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Transcript3 lines

[00:00]
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[00:57]
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I'm Maggie Smith and this is the slowdown. Revision is my favorite part of the writing process. Of course I love the rush of the new idea, the honeymoon period with a poem or an essay when it's still sparkling. But I especially enjoy the creative problem solving that revision entails. Coleridge wrote that poetry is the best words in the best order. I enjoy the challenge posed by having the not best words in the not best order. I find the challenge of revision invigorating. It wakes my brain up in exciting ways. To revise means, literally to see again or to look at again. Revision is when we take another look at what we've made and we see it anew. Each revision ideally gets us closer to the peace we sense is there waiting. But each revision can also pull us farther away from the initial spark that drove us to the page. This tension, this push and pull, is exactly what makes revision dynamic and exciting. We are hunting something, but we aren't quite clear about what it looks like or how to find it. I believe in the magic of multiple revisions. I also believe that we can over revise. We can look so hard for the finished piece that we believe waits for us inside the messy draft that we scare it off. We can polish it dull. Sometimes we need to go back in order to move forward. Today's poem pulls back the curtain on the revision process, showing us how it's about more than just the text on the page. The poet refers to an earlier poem of theirs, an ekphrastic poem based on a sculpture by Thomas Hirshhorn. His work Candelabra with Heads features mannequins bandaged in brown duct tape and hung from a wood frame. This poet revised her poem of the same name to remove the last line, but later went back and reinstated it. In Defense of Candelabra with Heads by Nicole Seeley if you've read the Candelabra with Heads that appears in this collection and the one in the Animal, thank you. The original, the one included here, is an example of, I'm told, of a poem that can speak for itself but loses faith in its ability to do so by ending with a thesis question. Yeats said a poem should click shut like a well made box. I don't disagree. I ask who can see this and not see lynchings? Not because I don't trust you, dear reader, or my own abilities. I ask because the imagination would have us believe, much like faith. Faith the original candelabra lacks in things unseen. You should know that human limbs burn like branches and branches like human limbs. Only after man began hanging man from trees, then setting him on fire, which would jump from limb to branch like a bastard species of bird, did we come to know such things a hundred years from now. October 9, 2116 8:18pm when all but the lucky are good and dead, may someone happen upon the question in question. May that lucky someone be black and so far removed from the verb lynch that she be dumbfounded by its meaning. May she then call up Hirshhorn's Candelabra with heads. May her imagination, not her memory, run wild. The Slowdown is a production of American Public Media in partnership with the Poetry Foundation. To get a poem delivered to you daily, go to slowdownshow.org and and sign up for our newsletter. Find us on instagram slowdownshow and blueskylowdownshow.org. Hey, it's Maggie. Every weekday, the Slowdown delivers the creativity and care of poetry to all free of charge, and your support makes it possible. Donating to the Slowdown is easy. Just go to slowdownshow.org donate to make your gift in less time than it takes to listen to an episode.