Episode Overview

Podcast: The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
Host: Maggie Smith
Episode: 1488: Anniversary by Edward Salem
Date: April 7, 2026

On this episode of The Slowdown, host Maggie Smith invites listeners to reflect on how we remember and honor loved ones, especially those who have passed away. Through her personal meditation on birding and visits to cemeteries, Maggie guides us into a reading of Edward Salem's poem “Anniversary”—a piece that explores the ways space, memory, and physical presence intertwine at gravesites. The episode’s gentle tone balances reverence with personal vulnerability, encouraging listeners to find solace and creative energy in poetry.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Personal Reflection: Birding in a Cemetery

• Birding as Contemplation:

  • Maggie shares her experience of birding with an expert friend at Green Lawn Cemetery in central Ohio.
  • She admits to being an amateur who enjoys using the Merlin app to identify bird calls.
  • This story sets up the paradox of seeking life (birds) in a place associated with death (cemeteries).

  "I laughed later, looking at the photos on my phone, because most of the shots I took were of headstones and family crypts. I took very few photos of birds or even the sky, instead focusing on the ground and what lay beneath it." (Maggie Smith, 01:35)

Grounded Rituals: Remembering Loved Ones

• Alternatives to Visiting Graves:

  • Maggie reflects on rarely visiting cemeteries for remembrance, favoring storytelling, photos, and music as her ways of keeping lost loved ones close.
  • Writing becomes a significant act of remembrance for her.

  "If I want to feel close to someone I've lost, I'm more likely to look at photos, or tell stories, or listen to songs that remind me of them. And yes, I'm likely to write about them. That's part of how I honor their memory and keep them close." (Maggie Smith, 02:20)

Introducing the Poem: "Anniversary" by Edward Salem

• Maggie introduces the poem as an exploration of bodily memory, space in cemeteries, and the quiet discomfort and grace of these rituals.

Poem Segment: "Anniversary" by Edward Salem | [03:06]

Highlights from the Poem

• Imagery of Maintenance and Proximity:

  • The speaker kneels to clear encroaching grass from a headstone, noticing the closeness of graves.

• An Old Man’s Practical Wisdom:

  • A fellow visitor shares that graves lie above abdomens, not heads, altering the speaker’s perception of how the deceased occupy the space.

• Disconcerting Visualizations:

  • The poem describes a mental image of bodies stacked as “a horizontal grid, gaudy totem poles,” an unsettling and memorable depiction.

• Personal Memory and Sensation:

  • The speaker recalls walking on their mother’s back as a child and equates this tender act with standing atop her grave.

  "I wasn't sure what part of her body I stood over, but I stepped aside, as if she could feel my weight, like when I was a child and she'd lie on the carpet and tell me to walk all over her back." (Edward Salem, 04:00)

• Emotional Complexity:

  • The poem closes on the sense of awkwardness present in every visit:

    "Yet standing off to the side of her grave felt wrong. Every year, every visit, like the bashing of a Go." (Edward Salem, 04:50)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Birding & Mourning:

  "Cemeteries are peaceful, reverent places, and yet they're places I don't visit regularly. Not unless I'm birding, apparently."
  (Maggie Smith, 01:45)

• On Physical Memory:

  "...as if she could feel my weight, like when I was a child and she'd lie on the carpet and tell me to walk all over her back."
  (Edward Salem, 04:00)

• Noticing Discomfort in Ritual:

  "Yet standing off to the side of her grave felt wrong. Every year, every visit, like the bashing of a Go."
  (Edward Salem, 04:50)

Notable Timestamps

• 00:50–02:15: Maggie reflects on birding, cemeteries, and personal rituals of remembrance.
• 03:06–05:10: Full reading of “Anniversary” by Edward Salem; poem’s emotional and visual core.
• 05:15-end: Maggie briefly thanks listeners and reminds them of the daily poem ritual and community.

Concluding Reflection

This episode uses the occasion of National Poetry Month to reinforce the value of daily poetic reflection as a means of processing loss, honoring loved ones, and finding moments of connection—both with each other and with the physical world, whether above or beneath the ground. Maggie Smith’s storytelling grounds the featured poem in lived experience, encouraging listeners to explore their own rituals of remembrance beyond traditional boundaries.