1563: Return Path by Lesley Wheeler

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
Host: Maggie Smith
Episode: 1563: Return Path by Lesley Wheeler
Date: July 21, 2026

In this reflective episode, Maggie Smith explores the poetic form of the villanelle before presenting Lesley Wheeler’s poem "Return Path." Smith guides listeners through the structure and emotional resonance of the villanelle, highlighting how its repetitions can echo the rhythms of daily life and spirituality. The episode centers on how formal constraints can inspire creativity and how poetry — particularly in ritualized, repeating forms — helps us contemplate meaning, memory, and connection.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Poetic Form: The Villanelle

[01:05]–[03:00]

• Maggie Smith opens by discussing the array of poetic forms, emphasizing that some—like the villanelle—offer "rigor and pleasure" through their constraints.
• She describes the villanelle as "a kind of puzzle that you both build and solve," pointing out its structure: five tercets followed by a quatrain, and distinctive refrains and rhyme patterns.
• Famous examples, such as Elizabeth Bishop’s "One Art" and Dylan Thomas’s "Do not go gentle into that good night," are referenced to illustrate the emotional power and recognizability of the form.
• Smith suggests villanelles are particularly suited to "an insistent memory, an unresolved emotion, or a feeling of being trapped," but they also serve any subject that calls for repetition.

Notable Quote

"The multiple repetitions and the circular nature of the villanelle make it a good form for poems that grapple with an insistent memory, an unresolved emotion, or a feeling of being trapped."
— Maggie Smith [02:25]

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Repetition in Poetry and Life

[03:00]–[04:10]

• Smith draws a parallel between the repetition inherent in the villanelle and the cycles of everyday life: "So much of life is repetition after all, isn’t it?"
• She distinguishes between mundane repetition and "reverent" repetition, describing the latter as forming "rituals" that give our lives meaning.

Notable Quote

"When repetition is reverent, it also forms rituals, repetitions which give our lives meaning."
— Maggie Smith [03:46]

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Introduction and Reading of "Return Path"

[04:10]–[05:52]

• Smith introduces "Return Path" by Lesley Wheeler as a villanelle that uses the motif of a "circuit" as an apt metaphor for its repeating structure and spiritual investigation.
• She reads the poem in full, allowing the interplay between form and meaning to become evident to the listener.

Notable Moments

• The phrase "the only way to pray is through my feet" opens Wheeler’s exploration of connection, grounding, and spirituality.
• The poem’s recurring language around circuits, energy, and the natural world aligns closely with the ideas of ritual and repetition discussed earlier.

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Reflection & Thematic Ties

[05:52]–[06:30]

• Though brief, the episode concludes by implying that poetry—especially when structured through challenging forms—serves both as a creative constraint and as a meditation on life’s patterns.
• Smith reinforces the idea that the daily practice of poetry can connect us to ourselves and the broader world.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "It’s a kind of puzzle that you both build and solve."
  — Maggie Smith [01:40]

• "The villanelle has two refrains, or lines that repeat in specific places, plus a rigid rhyme scheme..."
  — Maggie Smith [02:04]

• "So much of life is repetition after all, isn’t it? We perform the same actions again and again, day after day."
  — Maggie Smith [03:27]

• Opening lines of "Return Path":

  "The only way to pray is through my feet
  earthward, jolted in return by the fizz of a spiking current."
  — Lesley Wheeler [04:25]

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Important Timestamps

• [01:05] — Maggie Smith introduces the concept of poetic forms and focuses on the villanelle
• [02:25] — Explanation of villanelle structure and examples of famous poems
• [03:27] — Reflection on repetition in poetry and daily life
• [04:10] — Introduction to Lesley Wheeler’s "Return Path"
• [04:25]–[05:52] — Full reading of "Return Path"
• [06:00] — Closing remarks tying poetry, ritual, and mindfulness

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Tone & Language

Maggie Smith’s language throughout is reflective, warm, and gently instructive, inviting listeners to contemplate how poetry interweaves with everyday experience. The episode is meditative and attentive, mirroring the philosophy that poetry—especially in a disciplined form—offers space for hope, connection, and personal ritual.

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Transcript

[A]

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[C]

I'm Maggie Smith and this is the Slowdown. As poets, we have so many poetic forms to do choose from, and some are fussier than others. By that I mean some have more rules for the writer to follow. We could choose to write in free verse all the time with no rules, and plenty of poets do mostly that, myself included. But there is also a specific rigor and pleasure to working in a received form, to being creative within those constraints. It's a kind of puzzle that you both build and solve. The villanelle is one of those puzzles. A highly structured form, it's made up of six stanzas, five tercets with three lines each, and a final quatrain with four lines. But what makes the villanelle instantly recognizable and arguably fussy are its use of repetition and rhyme. The villanelle has two refrains or lines that repeat in specific places, plus a rigid rhyme scheme. There is one end rhyme that carries through lines 1 and 3 of each tercet plus lines 1, 3, and 4. In the final quatrain, there is a second end rhyme that carries through the middle line of each tercet plus line two in the final quatrain. Elizabeth Bishop's one Art might be my personal favorite villanelle, but the most famous poem written in the form is likely Dylan Thomas. Do not go gentle into that good Night with its two refrains, do not go gentle into that good night and rage, rage against the dying of the light. The multiple repetitions and the circular nature of the villanelle make it a good form for poems that grapple with an insistent memory, an unresolved emotion, or a feeling of being trapped. But the form can be a container for any kind of subject matter in which repetition feels essential. So much of life is repetition after all, isn't it? We perform the same actions again and again, day after day. This might sound mundane, but when repetition is reverent, it also forms rituals, repetitions which give our lives meaning. Today's poem is a villanelle, and its use of the word circuit makes the repetition especially apropos. Return Path by Leslie Wheeler the only way to pray is through my feet earthward, jolted in return by the fizz of a spiking current. I never thought a circuit would loop through me, believed I was separate, alone, done with gods. But here it is. I found a way to pray. Through my feet I reach down, there's something animate, mycelial that touches me back. It's a species of love, a thinking spike, a zinging circuit of energy and dirt, blood and spirit, plutonic conversation, mostly wordless. The way I've found to pray is through my feet, sole bared to wooden boards or rug or slate or buggy grass. Just as you want to press skin to a beloved's sparking a current, a circuit. Not that earth loves me exactly matters what matters she wants me to return the mess of my only body, pray from head through feet as I sink unthinking ash into love's circuit. 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, loadownshow and blueskylowdownshow.org.

[D]

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