1556: Articulation of Solace by Yongyu Chen

Summary

Episode Overview

Episode Title: Articulation of Solace by Yongyu Chen
Host: Maggie Smith
Podcast: The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
Date: July 10, 2026
Theme:
This episode centers around experiencing and reflecting on the poem “Articulation of Solace” by Yongyu Chen. Host Maggie Smith discusses how certain books and poems offer transformative, innovative insights into both literary form and the complexities of emotion, inviting listeners to dwell within the “beautiful strangeness” of poetic language. The episode is a meditation on solace, vulnerability, and the search for connection through art.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Transformative Power of Form and Content

[00:55–02:16]

• Maggie Smith begins by listing books that shaped her writing and thinking:
  • C.D. Wright’s Deep Step Come Shining
  • Lyn Hejinian’s My Life
  • Carole Maso’s Break Every Rule
  • Clarice Lispector’s The Stream of Life (Água Viva)
• Common threads among these works: “a beautiful strangeness,” “commitment to authenticity, originality and lyricism.”
• Notably, though these books are prose, Smith sees them as deeply poetic: “The sentences shine clear and sharp and bright.”
• Smith asserts: “In these texts, form follows function. Risks taken on the page mirror risks taken in content.”

2. Introducing and Contextualizing the Poem

[02:16–02:43]

• Smith transitions to today’s poem, suggesting it stands alongside her favorite transformative books through its jewel-like sentences and innovative use of space on the page.
• Poem introduced: “Articulation of Solace” by Yongyu Chen.

3. Reading of “Articulation of Solace”

[02:43–04:33]

• Smith performs a sensitive, deliberate reading of Chen’s poem, which journeys through themes of self-mothering, language, love, loss, and the search for solace.
• The poem weaves together personal history, emotional fault lines, vivid images (e.g., “cold pomegranates and the porcelain bowl that didn’t break”), and existential questions (e.g., “What’s the point of time if we are never out of it?”).

Notable Lines from the Poem:

• “We are mothering ourselves. We are articulating solace for each other.”
• “The fault line between the language of feeling and the language of catastrophe. We find it our common language, our white world.”
• “Every poem was once impossible.”
• “You see someone dead in your dream when he is still alive outside it. Aliveness changes the kind of violence that can be taken back…”
• “I wanted terrifying friends to love me / you carrying away gorgeous bags of treasure every time we meet…”

4. The Relationship Between Poetry, Experience, and Solace

[Recurring through reading and reflection, 04:00–04:33]

• Smith’s choice of this poem underscores poetry’s capacity to articulate both inner turmoil and the comfort we try to build for ourselves and others.
• The poem becomes a vessel for articulating what cannot otherwise be said about pain, love, longing, and the flexible, changing nature of solace.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

Maggie Smith on Form and Authenticity

[01:20]
“These texts…they share a commitment to authenticity, originality and lyricism. They are each innovative but not gimmicky, because in these texts, form follows function. Risks taken on the page mirror risks taken in content.”

Chen’s Poem Captures the Complexity of Solace

[03:10–04:33]
“We are mothering ourselves. We are articulating solace for each other. We are trying to not fall in love, write love poems to not fall in love…The fault line between the language of feeling and the language of catastrophe.”

On the Impossibility and Necessity of Poetry

[03:57]
“Every poem was once impossible.”

Longing for Connection

[04:20]
“I wanted terrifying friends to love me / you carrying away gorgeous bags of treasure every time we meet…”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:55–02:16: Maggie Smith reflects on formative poetic/prose books and their shared qualities.
• 02:16–02:43: Introduction and contextualization of Yongyu Chen’s “Articulation of Solace.”
• 02:43–04:33: Full reading of Chen’s poem with emotional inflection and pauses to let images resonate.
• 04:34–end: Production credits and call to support the show.

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Episode Flow and Tone

The episode embodies Maggie Smith’s signature calm, thoughtful voice, inviting listeners to settle into a space of literary wonder and quiet contemplation. Smith’s reverence for both poetry and the act of emotional reflection permeates the segment, making the listening experience both accessible and profound. For those craving solace, connection, or simply a moment to appreciate language’s magic, this episode delivers.

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Recommendation:
If you want to revisit the essence of solace, or reflect on the boundaries between feeling and expression, start at 02:43 for the powerful reading of the poem itself.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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[C]

I'm Maggie Smith and this is is the Slowdown. I've read a lot of books over the years, and some have fundamentally changed not only the way I write, but the way I think. I mean, books that broke everything wide open for me, showing me possibilities in form and in content that I couldn't access before. The shortlist includes CD Wright's Deep Step Come Shining, Lynn Hajinian's My Life, Carol Meso's Break Every Rule, and Clarice Lispector's the Stream of Life, originally published in Portuguese as Agua Viva. When I think about what these texts have in common, they're all books that possess a beautiful strangeness. They share a commitment to authenticity, originality and lyricism. They are each innovative but not gimmicky, because in these texts, form follows function. Risks taken on the page mirror risks taken in content. And though all of these books are prose, they're some of the most poetic books I've ever encountered. The sentences shine clear and sharp and bright. Today's poem impacted me like those beloved texts with its jewel like sentences and its use of the field of the page. Articulation of Solace by Jung Yu Chen we are mothering ourselves. We are articulating solace for each other. We are trying to not fall in love, Write love poems to not fall in love. The fault line between the language of feeling and and the language of catastrophe. We find it our common language, our white world. We are trying to write close to it, even closer. Closeness changes. Every poem was once impossible. Medieval torture devices, Fallon steries. That's when it mattered. That's when you wrote it. Your father's car speeds up the mountain like an unsent letter, and you see someone dead in your dream when he is still alive outside it. Aliveness changes the kind of violence that can be taken back the room where someone not deadly realized they could care for you and didn't or did. Now you imagine it emptied the kitchen without a sink windswept glazed emerald gold. You could picture solace only by bright walls you said by not in a nearness. We were dreaming about an apartment in the Mesozoic, a meadow on Neptune thinking this relationship between cold pomegranates and the porcelain bowl that didn't break as it held them. Solace. I wanted islands instead of worlds I wanted a new kind of ice one to hold onto lying in bed at noon, bitter citrus grafting like lightning onto my neck so I could be orchards as well as well as seeds of thunderstorms. What's the point of time if we are never out of it? Knocking at your door in landfall in someone else's house I wanted we in the second person I wanted unimaginable solace in the second person I wanted terrifying friends to love me you carrying away gorgeous bags of treasure every time we meet Deadlight clearly we were not who we were clearly we were not dead we were not who mistaken I wanted to look exactly like you. 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 lodownshow and bluesky.downdownshow.org the slowdown is written by me, Maggie Smith. The show is produced by Micah Kielbon and Maria Wurtel. Our music is composed by Kyle Andrews, engineering by Derek Ramirez and Maurizio Dirico. Our script editor and digital producer is Jordan Turgeon. Additional production help by Susanna Sharpless and Lauren Humpert. APM's Director of Distribution is Amy Lundgren, and our president is Chandra Kavati. Hey, it's Maggie. Every weekday, the Slowdown delivers the creativity and care of poetry to all free of charge, and your support makes it possible. Donating to the Slowdown is easy. Just go to slowdownshow.org donate to make your gift in less time than it takes to listen to an episode.