The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Episode 1448: Orchestra by Russell Brakefield
Host: Samia Bashir (guest-hosting for Maggie Smith)
Date: February 3, 2026

Overview

In this episode, guest host Samia Bashir continues The Slowdown’s tradition of weaving poetry and reflection together as daily nourishment. Drawing from personal experience, Bashir meditates on the communal power of artistic growth and ecological continuity—introducing Russell Brakefield’s poem “Orchestra.” The episode explores themes of patience, collaboration, and restoration, linking the world of bees to both poetry’s creative process and larger environmental stewardship.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Poetry Community and Artistic Growth

• Bashir recalls her 2009 Kaveh Canem Scholarship experience at the Community of Writers in Lake Tahoe, highlighting a deep sense of lineage among poets and the value of shared creative spaces.
  • “What sticks with me to this day as an experience that continues to connect me to lineage, students, teachers, and the very idea of time and artistic growth.” (01:01)

2. The Challenge of Creation: Bees and Colony Collapse

• Bashir details her struggle to write a poem about colony collapse disorder in bees, framing it as a metaphor for ecological interconnectedness and urgency.
  • “Our survival on this planet is not singular, but communal. Bees don't just pollinate our food. They are the key to ecological continuity.” (01:43)
  • She reflects on poetry’s potential as both personal and environmental alarm, with her aim to “warn us that we have to do something, repair something now, or the worldwide consequences will be devastating.” (02:03)

3. A Workshop Lesson from Galway Kinnell

• Bashir’s anecdote about Galway Kinnell writing (overnight) the bee poem she’d labored over for weeks illustrates the impact of experience on creative productivity.
  • “That day, Galway Kinnell shared a poem he'd written the night before—the bees. I was blown away.” (02:30)
  • When she asked Kinnell how he did it, he replied simply, “This is what I do, and I've been doing it forever.” (03:11)
  • Bashir humorously reacts, “Honey, my flabbers were gassed.” (03:15) and underscores the importance of patience and practice in poetic growth.

4. Restoration as Poetic and Environmental Practice

• Bashir pivots to the episode’s central poem, highlighting the ways poetry, like ecological repair, is an act of deliberate restoration.
  • “Restoration, like most things worthwhile, is far from simple. But we know, and this poet shows us, that by taking such deliberate steps toward doing recovery, repair, and renewal—in our poetry, as well as in our environmental stewardship—we reestablish our own ability to live our own best lives.” (04:03)

Featured Poem: Orchestra by Russell Brakefield

• Bashir reads “Orchestra,” a quiet, precise meditation on bees and their communal life, drawing subtle lines between bee behavior and human social need.
• Key lines include:
  • “Bees sleep because they need to like us together. A bundle of bees asleep at night is a concertina wheezing closed in the hive. They dance a democratic dance, a waltz to prioritize.” (05:03)
  • The poem beautifully notes, “Some bees feel the thrum of electric current as they encounter a flower’s field, which is true, but also what I need: to be social, spark, singing field.” (05:23)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Galway Kinnell’s poetic ease:
  • “His response was a shrug: ‘This is what I do… and I’ve been doing it forever.’” (03:11, Samia Bashir recounting Kinnell)
• On the reward of staying with the work:
  • “To remember the power of growth, of staying with something and building upon the knowledge and experience we gain through practice and patience and willingness—that what we gain is worth the work.” (03:35, Bashir)
• On poetic restoration:
  • “By taking such deliberate steps toward doing recovery, repair, and renewal… we reestablish our own ability to live our own best lives.” (04:18, Bashir)
• On bees and the social self (from Brakefield’s poem):
  • “Some bees feel the thrum of electric current as they encounter a flower's field, which is true, but also what I need to be: social, spark, singing field.” (05:23, Brakefield read by Bashir)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:30 – Maggie Smith introduces guest host Samia Bashir’s two-week poetry stewardship
• 00:50 – 02:30 – Bashir reflects on her Lake Tahoe poetry community and the challenge of crafting a bee poem
• 02:31 – 03:25 – Insights from Galway Kinnell, workshop dynamics, and the importance of creative lineage
• 04:01 – 04:36 – The restorative work of poetry and environmental repair
• 04:37 – 05:30 – Bashir reads “Orchestra” by Russell Brakefield

Episode Tone

Bashir’s style is warm, grounded, and rich with humor, respect, and poetic insight. The tone throughout the episode is both reverent and inviting—modeling the reflective, communal spirit of The Slowdown.

Summary:
This episode intertwines personal narrative, poetic mentorship, and environmental concern, all leading to the resonant, restorative lyricism of Russell Brakefield’s “Orchestra.” Through Bashir’s guidance, listeners are invited to see poetry both as a method for attention and reflection and an urgent call for collective custodianship—of art, community, and the living world.