1519: At the Entrance of a Love Poem, I Hesitate by Maya C. Popa - The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

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The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Episode 1519: At the Entrance of a Love Poem, I Hesitate by Maya C. Popa

Host: Maggie Smith
Date: May 20, 2026
Poet: Maya C. Popa

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Maggie Smith explores the enduring challenge of writing love poems and the many forms they can take. She reflects on her personal relationship with the genre, considering why expressing romantic love authentically in poetry is often so elusive—even for seasoned poets. Smith then introduces and reads Maya C. Popa’s piece, “At the Entrance of a Love Poem, I Hesitate,” highlighting its impact and lingering resonance.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Challenge of Love Poems

Love poems are hard to write: Maggie Smith opens by sharing her perspective that love poems might be the most difficult to compose, especially traditional romantic ones.
- “Love poems are maybe the hardest poems to write. I speak only for myself here, but I have a feeling plenty of poets agree with me.” (00:51)
Expansiveness of the love poem: Smith broadens the definition of love poems:
- They can be dedicated to not just lovers, but children, pets, siblings, memories, objects, or even ideas.
- “You can write a love poem to your child, to your pet, to your sister. You can write a love poem that remembers someone you lost…Grief is love.” (01:11)
Odes and praise poems as love poems: She notes that many poems throughout literary history (“odes, poems that praise or celebrate someone or something”) are, at their core, varieties of love poems.
- “Isn't a praise poem a kind of love poem too? I say yes.” (01:29)

Personal Reflection on Writing Love Poems

What’s easy vs. what’s hard: Smith admits to finding it easier to write about yearning or loss than about stable happiness or being “in love.”
- “I think it's easier to write about the exciting or painful longing for love and the bitter or confusing aftermath of a relationship than it is to write about having love, being in it.” (02:13)
Why happiness is (sometimes) inarticulate:
- “I'm inarticulate in love, and that's great for my life, just not great for my poems.” (02:49)
- She suggests that for some poets, creative articulation thrives in struggle rather than contentment:
  - “I write best when I'm grappling. When I'm happy, I'm just happy.” (02:45)

Introducing Maya C. Popa’s Poem

Immediate attraction to the poem's title and ending:
- “Today's poem wooed me with its title, but it won me over completely with the last couplet. I'm not playing hard to get with this poem. I'm all in.” (03:10)

Poem Reading

“At the Entrance of a Love Poem, I Hesitate” by Maya C. Popa

(Read by Maggie Smith; 03:17–04:08)

“Haven't I been here before?
And didn't I leave through the window in love then the remainder of a life that love had made so gradual the change a whale turning slowly mistaken for a continent by gulls
Affection sufficed when vision ran dry, the answer dissolving the exquisite inquiry.
What is a love poem?
I'd make this one if only convention could keep up with a heart's multiplying gravities.
All my loves blink back a gallery of mirrors.
Look how we've made of each other's likeness, a life.” – Maya C. Popa (03:17–04:08)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the paradox of the love poem:
- “Isn't an elegy a kind of love poem? I think so. Grief is love. Anytime we are memorializing someone or something, we are doing so out of love and respect.” – Maggie Smith (01:18)
Writing through struggle:
- “I can live with that life hands us enough strife. We don't need to wish for more material.” – Maggie Smith (02:52)
On the poem’s effect:
- “I'm not playing hard to get with this poem. I'm all in.” – Maggie Smith (03:13)

Key Timestamps

00:51 – 02:13: Smith discusses the challenge and breadth of love poems
02:13 – 02:49: Reflection on her personal experience: why writing about happiness is elusive
03:10 – 03:17: Introducing today’s featured poem
03:17 – 04:08: Reading of “At the Entrance of a Love Poem, I Hesitate” by Maya C. Popa

Episode Takeaway

This episode gently invites listeners to reconsider what constitutes a love poem and how deeply such poems can resonate, even—or especially—when they step outside traditional romantic forms. Through Maggie Smith’s candid reflections and Maya C. Popa’s evocative poem, the episode becomes less about the “how” of love poetry, and more about its insistent, evolving presence in our lives.

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Transcript4 lines

[00:01]
A
Anxiety, depression, bipolar, disorder. At least half of us will experience a mental illness in our lifetime. In a new series of special reports from Call to Mind, we hear about the mental health impact of stress, climate change, immigration and more. Tune in for conversations with people managing hardship and experts seeking solutions. Listen to Call to Mind from American Public Media.
[00:30]
B
All new drinks are now at McDonald's, like the strawberry Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with popping Boba. You've got ice cold drinks for every moment. Refreshers contain caffeine.
[00:51]
C
I'm maggie smith and this is the slow down. Love poems are maybe the hardest poems to write. I speak only for myself here, but I have a feeling plenty of poets agree with me. Don't get me wrong, it's challenging to write any poem, and there are lots of different kinds of love poems. You can write a love poem to your child, to your pet, to your sister. You can write a love poem that remembers someone you lost. I mean, isn't an elegy a kind of love poem? I think so. Grief is love. Anytime we are memorializing someone or something, we are doing so out of love and respect. You can even write a love poem to an object, a season, a concept. Odes, poems that praise or celebrate someone or something have been popular since ancient times. And isn't a praise poem a kind of love poem too? I say yes. I've written love poems about the world, the landscape, my children, my parents, my grandparents. I've written love poems about Ohio, about home. I've even written love poems to trees. But then there's the love poem we're all thinking about, the poem designed to woo or to declare the speaker's devotion to the object of their affection. Writing about romantic love is flat out hard, which is why, if you look through my books, you probably won't find anything that looks or sounds like a traditional love poem. I think it's easier to write about the exciting or painful longing for love and the bitter or confusing aftermath of a relationship than it is to write about having love, being in it. It's a trade off, I suppose, to be content in life, but a little discontent with a pen in my hand trying to commit it to the page. Another way of saying this is that I write best when I'm grappling. When I'm happy, I'm just happy. I'm inarticulate in love, and that's great for my life, just not great for my poems. I can live with that life hands us enough strife. We don't need to wish for more material. Today's poem wooed me with its title, but it won me over completely with the last couplet. I'm not playing hard to get with this poem. I'm all in. At the entrance of a love poem, I Hesitate by Maya C. Popa Haven't I been here before? And didn't I leave through the window in love then the remainder of a life that love had made so gradual the change a whale turning slowly mistaken for a continent by gulls Affection sufficed when vision ran dry, the answer dissolving the exquisite inquiry. What is a love poem? I'd make this one if only convention could keep up with a heart's multiplying gravities. All my loves blink back a gallery of mirrors. Look how we've made of each other's likeness, a life. The Slowdown is 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 bluesky.downdownshow.org.
[06:49]
B
Hey, it's Francis Lamb, host of the Splendid Table podcast. Every week on our show, we celebrate the intersection of food and life, and this month we're releasing a new series called Culinary Masters. It highlights some of the most iconic people in the food world, and we're revisiting conversations with people who have fundamentally changed how many of us cook and think about food. People like Jacques Pepin, Claudia Rodin and Tony Bourdain, to name a few. You can listen to this special series now. Just search for the Splendid Table in your podcast app.