1438: The Long Now by Robin Beth Schaer - The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Summary4 min read

Episode Overview

Episode Title: The Long Now by Robin Beth Schaer
Host: Maggie Smith
Date: January 20, 2026
Podcast: The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

This episode of The Slowdown explores the expansive and searching nature of children's curiosity, especially their questions about big matters like time, space, and existence. Host Maggie Smith reflects on the profound role of poetry in honoring that wonder, and then reads and contemplates Robin Beth Schaer’s poem “The Long Now,” a piece that grapples with parenting, cosmic questions, and the beauty of not always having answers.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Big Questions of Childhood (01:00–01:36)

Children as Natural Poets & Philosophers:
Maggie Smith sets the frame with:

“Kids are natural born poets and philosophers. They want to know everything about life and death and time. So many questions about time.” (Maggie Smith, 01:03)
Valuing Wonder over Certainty:
Rather than pretending to have all the answers, Smith suggests that parents should instead honor curiosity and wonder:

“As parents, we don't need to have the answers, and we don't need to pretend to have them. Instead, we can listen, stay open and honor our kids' curiosity and wonder.” (Maggie Smith, 01:15)

Poetic Exploration – “The Long Now” by Robin Beth Schaer (01:37–04:03)

A Parent-Child Dialogue About Time, Stars, and Separation:
The poem is addressed to a questioning child. Its language shifts seamlessly between astronomical imagery and intimate moments of parenting.
- The Sky as a Map of Questions:
  
  “The sky is a map of questions. What burns? How long? Where is the middle without an edge? You ask, and my answers are never enough.” (Robin Beth Schaer, 01:38)
- Moving from Innocence to Vastness:
  The poem remarks on the early days of parenting “outside of time” and transitions to the child’s increasing awareness of a larger universe.
- Science, Myth, and Comfort:
  The mother explains celestial phenomena—the red giant Betelgeuse, Venus as the morning and evening star—while admitting the limits of her answers.
- On Division and Location:
  
  “To locate ourselves is to measure separation from another. We are in the same field, but 40 years apart, a thousand feet above the sea, and 500 miles from the graves of my grandparents.” (Robin Beth Schaer, 03:07)
- Love as the Fixed Point Amidst Infinity:
  The poem concludes with a hope that their lives will be endless questions, and that love is a central anchor in the vastness:
  
  “If infinity is edgeless, then the center becomes wherever we are. You are my fixed point as we spin on an axis, turn in orbits inside of orbits, and speed outwards.” (Robin Beth Schaer, 03:31)
- Science Fact as Philosophy:
  
  “On Venus each day is longer than a year, and if we keep walking toward the sun, it will never be night.” (Robin Beth Schaer, 03:57)

Reflections on the Poem

Embracing Uncertainty:
Both Maggie Smith’s introduction and Schaer’s poem urge us to either make peace with uncertainty or even celebrate it, especially in the context of parenting and the passage of time.
Poetry’s Function in Daily Life:
Smith reiterates poetry’s role as a tool for reflection, wonder, and hope, saying:

“Poetry is one of the greatest tools we have to wield our own attention — to consider our own lives and the lives of others…” (Maggie Smith, 00:12)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the Limits of Parental Knowledge:

“You ask, and my answers are never enough.”
(Robin Beth Schaer reading, 01:39)
On Shared but Separated Existence:

“Imagine me in Ohio and you on the ocean, a pole to the other in half dark where the strongest light is Venus low in opposite skies.”
(Robin Beth Schaer, 02:40)
On Love Amidst the Cosmos:

“You are my fixed point as we spin on an axis, turn in orbits inside of orbits, and speed outwards.”
(Robin Beth Schaer, 03:32)
On Endless Questions:

“Instead of a sentence, may our lives be endless questions.”
(Robin Beth Schaer, 03:49)

Timestamps for Key Segments

Big Questions of Childhood & Parenting: 01:00–01:36
Reading of “The Long Now”: 01:37–04:03
Poetic Reflection on Science, Time, and Love: 02:30–03:45

Episode Insights & Tone

The tone is gentle, contemplative, and tender—mirroring the childlike awe and parental humility explored in both Smith’s commentary and Schaer’s poem.
The episode invites listeners to embrace wonder, cherish curiosity, and accept the beauty of not knowing all the answers.
Poetry is celebrated as a means of slowing down, reflecting deeply, and connecting with both inner and outer worlds.

This episode will resonate with anyone interested in the big mysteries of existence, the challenges and joys of parenting, and the way poetry can help us hold space for both knowledge and wonder.

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Transcript3 lines

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Foreign. I'm Maggie Smith and this is the Slowdown. Kids are natural born poets and philosophers. They want to know everything about life and death and time. So many questions about time. They want to know about space and the deep sea and all of life's mysteries. Conversations with children tend to be light on small talk and heavy on big talk. Today's poem addresses a child, a child full of questions about the world. It reminds me that as parents, we don't need to have the answers, and we don't need to pretend to have them. Instead, we can listen, stay open and honor our kids. Curiosity and wonder honor the poets and philosophers that they are. The Long now by Robin Beth Sher the sky is a map of questions. What burns? How long? Where is the middle without an edge? You ask, and my answers are never enough. When you were small, we lived by milk thirst and sleep, outside of time and the shifting blues, unaware of any world beyond the two of us. But now you point upward and every question bears another how bright? How many? Can we live out there? I warm your hands with mine and tell you how even stars can be cast out or mistaken in the winter Triangle. The red giant is Betelgeuse, a runaway in a stellar wake of heat and wind and soon to supernova. Just above the pines is the evening star, which is also the morning star, and not a star at all, but a cloudy planet double seen so close to us. Imagine me in Ohio and you on the ocean, a pole to the other in half dark where the strongest light is Venus low in opposite skies. Why is it not all one day you ask, and I cannot answer, because all I want is more of your days. If each life is a single spoken sentence, then I know how yours begins. But I will never hear it whole all the time, and we do not have time. I draw a circle split in two. The empty curve is half a turn, a door or a burial mound, the way my body without me is an outline of moss. I could tell you how distant light from stars still finds us long after they burn out, or that bones are made of their dying dust. But that is no consolation. We are experts at division. You want to know how far, where we go and what happens after. To locate ourselves is to measure separation from another. We are in the same field, but 40 years apart, a thousand feet above the sea, and 500 miles from the graves of my grandparents. Listen, my love. The universe cannot be fathomed, not with circles of stone, an abacus, or even a telescope. If infinity is edgeless, then the center becomes wherever we are. You are my fixed point as we spin on an axis, turn in orbits inside of orbits, and speed outwards. Instead of a sentence, may our lives be endless questions. On Venus each day is longer than a year, and if we keep walking toward the sun, it will never be night. 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 sign up for our newsletter. Find us on Instagram at Slowdown show and blueskylowdownshow.org. Hi, it's Maggie. The Slowdown helps you discover new poems and revisit old favorites. You can help us continue showcasing poetry from a diverse swath of authors by making a tax deductible gift. Head to slowdownshow.org donate today.