1468: Five Paragraph Essay on Time by Kathleen Flenniken

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Slowdown – Episode 1468

Poem: "Five Paragraph Essay on Time" by Kathleen Flenniken
Host: Maggie Smith
Date: March 3, 2026

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Episode Overview

Main Theme:
Host Maggie Smith explores procrastination—its place in the creative process and daily life—framing it as a form of triage rather than a personal flaw. Smith connects her reflections to the day’s featured poem, “Five Paragraph Essay on Time” by Kathleen Flenniken, which uses the structure of a classic school essay to meditate on memory, time, and the urgency that shapes both writing and life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Reframing Procrastination

• Confession of Procrastination (00:36):
  Maggie Smith opens with personal honesty, admitting her tendency to put off tasks—a habit she shares with other writers and friends.

• Triage, Not Procrastination (01:10):
  Smith recounts a friend’s reframing of procrastination as "triage." Tasks aren’t dropped due to laziness, but prioritized with urgency as the guide:

  “She kindly corrected me. Or rather, she reframed what I was calling procrastination as something else. Triage.” (01:13)

• The Upside to Delaying (01:39):
  Smith notes her research into procrastination reveals positives:

  • Delaying completion can lead to richer consideration and better decisions.
  • We naturally finish projects we’re passionate about—procrastination shines a light on what matters most to us.

  “One upside to delaying completion of a task is that you have more time to think about it and gather information...procrastination reveals what's really important to you.” (01:47)

Introduction to Today’s Poem

• Form Meets Function (02:12):
  Smith introduces Kathleen Flenniken’s “Five Paragraph Essay on Time,” a poem that borrows the essay format learned in youth to explore memories, passages of time, and urgency.

  “It uses the idea of a now faraway form to explore memories and places that feel far away too, yet all against the urgency of procrastination.” (02:21)

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Poem Reading: “Five Paragraph Essay on Time” by Kathleen Flenniken

[Full reading from 02:23–05:40]

Poem Highlights:

• Student Memory:
  Flenniken recalls postponing school assignments, rising pre-dawn to finish under pressure, using vivid imagery:

  “I launched sentences with my blue pen like bodies jumping out of buildings on fire.” (02:52)

• Sense of Place and Passage:
  Memories are grounded in the physical home—the bay window where she wrote morphs into both memory and present-day vulnerability:

  “Fifty years later, a car smashed through the bay window where I wrote and watched the dawn.” (05:09)

• Urgency and Loss:
  The poem returns to time’s passage and its finality, ending with the haunting realization:

  “No one was home but I sit at the center of destruction, writing and running out of time.” (05:24)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Procrastination as Insight:

  “Delaying a task is telling you something about what you do and don’t want to be doing in your life.” – Maggie Smith (02:06)

• Poetic Imagery:

  “I launched sentences with my blue pen like bodies jumping out of buildings on fire.” – Kathleen Flenniken (02:52)

• The Fragility of Memory and Place:

  “Fifty years later, a car smashed through the bay window where I wrote and watched the dawn.” – Kathleen Flenniken (05:09)

• Closing Urgency:

  “I sit at the center of destruction, writing and running out of time.” – Kathleen Flenniken (05:24)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:36 – Maggie Smith’s confession and perspective on procrastination
• 01:13 – “Triage” concept introduction
• 01:39–02:06 – The positives of procrastination and insights about our priorities
• 02:12 – Intro to the poem and its structural significance
• 02:23–05:40 – Full reading of “Five Paragraph Essay on Time”
• 05:24 – Poem’s culminating lines on time and writing
• 05:40 – Episode closing and invitation to join the Slowdown community

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Tone & Style

Maggie Smith’s approach is warm, insightful, and relatable, inviting the listener to embrace a compassionate view of themselves and their creative rhythms. The conversation and the poem together underscore the bittersweet beauty and urgency of reflecting on how we spend our time.

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Transcript

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[Maggie Smith]

I'm Maggie Smith, and this is the Slowdown. I'm going to begin with a confession. I can be a procrastinator. I don't think that's unusual. A lot of my friends, including plenty of writers, also find themselves putting off tasks until the last minute. Sometimes it's because the task just isn't that appealing, so it's hard to feel motivated to do it. Sometimes the project is so enormous it's hard to get started. Recently I told a friend that I had procrastinated a task and so I had to really hustle to get it done on time. And she kindly corrected me. Or rather, she reframed what I was calling procrastination as something else. Triage. That's what she called it. She said, you have so much to do. You have to triage tasks. Tackle the big and immediate ones first and let some of the smaller ones go for a bit. She had a point. I didn't have a time management issue or a lack of focus. I was juggling multiple tasks and and that meant that some of them naturally had to wait. Our conversation spurred me to do a little research into the positive side of procrastination, if there is one. And there is one upside to delaying completion of a task is that you have more time to think about it and gather information. So procrastinating can actually lead to better decision making. You're also less likely to put off projects that you're passionate about, meaning that procrastination reveals what's really important to you. Delaying a task is telling you something about what you do and don't want to be doing in your life. Today's poem calls itself an essay, the first kind of essay most of us learn to write in school. It uses the idea of a now faraway form to explore memories and places that feel far away too, yet all against the urgency of procrastination. 5 paragraph essay on Time by Kathleen Flanagan More than once I blew off my high school essays to watch TV, set an alarm for 5am and dragged out of bed to a desk in the still dark living room window. Nervous about finishing, no chance to revise, I launched sentences with my blue pen like bodies jumping out of buildings on fire. The scene outside when I lifted my head, shifted from my own reflection to a pencil sketch of a street and front yard framed in my mother's proud bay window. In our otherwise plain faced house, the loops of my words leaned like they meant what they said. I'd look up to catch a light, blink on beams of a passing car, our big sycamore, then plunge again into my evidence essay and mourning emerging like bean sprouts in a milk carton. Fifty years later, a car smashed through the bay window where I wrote and watched the dawn. We sold the house years ago. No one was home but I sit at the center of destruction, writing and running out of time. 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. And find us on Instagram @downdownshow and [e-mail].

[Podcast Listener]

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[Maggie Smith]

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