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maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social
Maggie Smith
@maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social
27K followers 1.1K following 670 posts
Poet & NYT bestselling author.
Next book: A SUIT OR A SUITCASE: POEMS (March 24, 2026)
Host of @slowdownshow.org
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Maggie Smith
rebeccafoust.bsky.social
Thank you to @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social and to the production team of #TheSlowdown for featuring "Amalgam" on its daily podcast today at www.slowdownshow.org and to #Plume and editor #DanielLawless for first publishing the poem. What a treat, to hear your work read by a pro in a real sound studio!
The Slowdown
The Slowdown podcast hosted by Maggie Smith delivers a different way to see the world - through poetry
www.slowdownshow.org
December 5, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
"Today’s poem uses metaphor so skillfully, so surprisingly. I think once you hear the end, you’ll want to listen one more time to feel it click again," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1411 of The Slowdown.

Read "Amalgam" by Rebecca Foust: bit.ly/4auvcCe
text graphic with a portion of Rebecca Foust's poem, which can be found in full at the link in the post
December 5, 2025 at 7:47 PM
maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social
Lump in my throat on the way home from dropping my kids off at school, half from the streaky morning sky, half from this song. A good lump that made me smile. Take care out there. open.spotify.com/track/1rsGgT...
How Can You Live If You Can’t Love How Can You If You Do
open.spotify.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
"Today’s poem is a long, beautiful strand," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1410 of The Slowdown. "Listen and enjoy."

Read "Go" by Kathleen Ossip and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4oqUjJw

📖: Sarabande Books
text graphic featuring a snippet of Kathleen Ossip's poem, which can be found in full at the link in the post
December 4, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
"Today’s poem explores PTSD as experienced by a POW, or prisoner of war," shares host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in episode 1409 of The Slowdown. "I admire this poem for the way it speaks to the resilience of the human spirit."

Read "Sal, 1950" by Paula Colangelo: bit.ly/4oD75VK
text graphic featuring a portion of Paula Colangelo's poem, which can be found in full at the link in the post.
December 3, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art archives, John Constable's 1822 Cloud Study. Written on the back: "Sep 21 1822 past one o'clock looking South wind very fresh at East, but warm."
Small, scudding gray and white clouds against a background of higher, vertical cirrus clouds that barely let show a pale blue late summer sky. There is no horizon line.
December 2, 2025 at 2:51 AM
maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social
Cried—like, really cried—through a lot of Rental Family tonight. I went in knowing next to nothing about it, but I was completely charmed. A beautiful film. And Brendan Fraser is terrific.
December 2, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
"Today’s poem meditates on sacred spaces, and how they mean something different to each of us," shares host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in today's episode of The Slowdown, number 1407.

Read "At the Base of the Mountain” by Amanda Hawkins and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4pjmz2k
quote graphic featuring a portion of Amanda Hawkins' poem, which can be read in full at the link in the post
December 1, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
"Today’s poem charmed me immediately with its imagination and its restraint," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shared in today's episode of The Slowdown, number 1406. "It’s also a poem I want to read again as soon as I finish it."

Read "Paperweight" by Ryan Teitman: bit.ly/4oZE6fH
Text graphic featuring a portion of Ryan Teitman's poem: Every few months or so, I turn into a rock. First, my joints stiffen as if there’s weather coming. Then, I get the urge to read some doorstop novel. Finally, I become a rock. A smallish one, usually. My wife isn’t surprised anymore. She picks me up from the kitchen floor or the driveway and sets me on her desk as a paperweight. It’s nice to have a singular purpose. Photograph of poet Ryan Teitman. He's a bearded white man and is wearing glasses and a blue sweater.
November 28, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
“It's human nature to want to know for oneself, not only to trust in the knowledge of others," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social says during episode 1405 of The Slowdown.

Read "Entry” by Chet’la Sebree and our full episode transcript: https://bit.ly/48abvgj

📖: @tinhouse.bsky.social
text graphic featuring a portion of Chet'la Sebree's poem: Eve the only one cursed for eternity. Is this what it is to be part of the living? This being the prism. This being the tree.
November 27, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
mkdordiggsy.bsky.social
So grateful to have “Gloria Mundi” featured on The Slowdown podcast this morning. Thank you to the host, Maggie Smith, for seeing the poem fully and reading it beautifully.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
Performing Arts Podcast · Updated Semiweekly · Host Maggie Smith is your daily poetry companion. Poetry is one of the greatest tools we have to wield our own attention — to consider our own lives and ...
podcasts.apple.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
“The speaker of today’s poem imagines loved ones coming to their funeral—and they have some directives, and some requests," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode of The Slowdown, number 1402.

Read "Gloria Mundi" by Michael Kleber-Diggs: https://bit.ly/3Xb2ezJ
A text graphic featuring a portion of Michael Kleber-Diggs' poem: Come to my funeral dressed as you would for an autumn walk in the woods. Arrive on your schedule; I give you permission to be late, even without good cause. If my day arrives when you had other plans, please proceed with them instead. Celebrate me there — keep dancing. Tend your gardens. Live well. Don’t stop. Photograph of poet Michael Kleber-Diggs. He's a black man standing in front of a tan brick wall. HE's wearing glasses and has a salt-and-pepper beard.
November 24, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
jamespenha.bsky.social
Oh, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social, I love your "confession" at today's @slowdownshow.org: "I have a funeral playlist—a list of songs I want played at whatever my memorial service turns out to be." www.slowdownshow.org/episode/2025...
1402: Gloria Mundi by Michael Kleber-Diggs
Today’s poem is Gloria Mundi by Michael Kleber-Diggs.
www.slowdownshow.org
November 24, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
“Today’s poem dreams its way into an imagined scenario: finding oneself on this planet, an alien, a stranger, and doing one’s best to be seen as belonging, so as to stay," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1401 of The Slowdown.

Read "LeaveTaking" by Rita Dove: bit.ly/49VUARa
Text graphic featuring a portion of Rita Dove's poem. It reads: I was waiting I knew they were coming over the hill I knew the moment I stepped out onto the grass I too would disappear What a curious sensation being the stranger If I thought about it too long I would be seen for what I was but try too hard to blend in I might forget myself and miss my pickup and be stranded forever Photograph of poet Rita Dove. She is a Black woman with chin-length brown, curly hair.
November 21, 2025 at 7:51 PM
maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social
Earnest post alert. I know, when I look back at the weirdest & most complicated times in my life, the not-enough-sleep times, I’ll see what got me through, & it will be my friends.
November 21, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
“More than any genre, perhaps, poetry can help us say the unsayable," host Maggie Smith (@maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social) shares in episode 1400 of The Slowdown. "It helps to let poets take the reins."

Read "The Eulogy I Didn't Give (I)" by Bob Hicok and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/49omPYz
A text graphic featuring a portion of Bob Hicok's poem. It reads: I am now fathered but fatherless, a being whose being can half be traced to a hole in the ground, where my father’s beard is, and his bones. His beard will grow for a while down there and his bones will never cast a shadow, and I’ll always know where to go to look at his name cut in stone. A photograph of poet Bob Hicok. He is working on a construction project and wearing a white t-shirt and baseball cap.
November 20, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
“What can literature, or music, or film, or performance, or visual art do for us, particularly when we are struggling, individually and collectively?" asks @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social in today's episode, number 1398.

Read "A dead whale can feed an entire ecosystem" by Rachel Dillon: bit.ly/4oLpz7f
Text graphic featuring a portion of Rachel Dillon's poem. It reads: Please, someone— tell me a poem can coax oil from a sea bird’s throat. Tell me what to do with my hands—my hands— what can my hands do now? A photograph of poet Rachel Dillon. It's shot in double exposure, so she appears in the image twice, with one version of her looking to the side and one looking forward.
November 18, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
awpwriter.org
AWP is elated to announce Kiese Laymon, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social, Justin Torres, and Weike Wang as judges for the 2026 AWP Award Series! Check out our website to learn more about each judge and award. Submissions open January 1, 2026.
AWP Award Series
www.awpwriter.org
November 17, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
“Today’s poem makes us consider how we write about other people," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode number 1397 of The Slowdown.

Read “Palinode" by Lisa Low and our full episode transcript: https://bit.ly/4p7SOAO

📖: University of Wisconsin Press
Text graphic featuring a portion of Lisa Low's poem "Palinode." It reads: Your mother enters the poem with her sadness intact. When your mother enters the poem, should she be a strict, sad, hardworking, or immigrant mother? Your mother enters the poem wearing all her animal-print items at once, laughs holding a leopard-print lamp. Photograph of poet Lisa Lowe. She has short, dark hair and is wearing a black-and-white patterned blouse in front of a green hedge.
November 17, 2025 at 4:52 PM
maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social
I don’t know how you reset your vibe, but tonight I’m playing “Dopamine” by Robyn on repeat & dancing around the house & I’m telling you…it’s working.
November 14, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
dansinker.com
Hey next Feb/March I'm helping the incredible @meganstielstra.bsky.social with a class she's teaching called "Writing Rage." The amazing @smashfizzle.bsky.social and @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social and Carmen Maria Machado are also helping. Will be wild. www.offassignment.com/writing-rage
Writing Rage — Off Assignment
www.offassignment.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
meghanor.bsky.social
I'm so honored to have my work featured on the Slow Down! Thank you, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social.

Wonderful timing, as I'm writing poems again and trying to finish a manuscript. New poems coming soon from some magazines near you! ✨
slowdownshow.org The Slowdown @slowdownshow.org · 25d
“While we don’t have access to the answers, this poem is a beautiful place for the questions to live," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1393 of The Slowdown.

Read “The Night Where You No Longer Live" by @meghanor.bsky.social: bit.ly/4qSoA6s

📖: @wwnorton.com
A text graphic featuring a portion of Meghan O'Rourke's poem, which you can listen to in full at the link in the post.
November 11, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
“While we don’t have access to the answers, this poem is a beautiful place for the questions to live," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1393 of The Slowdown.

Read “The Night Where You No Longer Live" by @meghanor.bsky.social: bit.ly/4qSoA6s

📖: @wwnorton.com
A text graphic featuring a portion of Meghan O'Rourke's poem, which you can listen to in full at the link in the post.
November 11, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
slowdownshow.org
“Sometimes I prefer to engage with art — to listen to a record or see a film — without expectations," host Maggie Smith (@maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social) shares in episode number 1392 of The Slowdown.

Read “Local Mission" by Kai Carlson-Wee and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/47QaRVl
A graphic featuring a portion of Kai Carlson-Wee's poem. It reads: in early July (maybe the exact same street corner) looking at maple leaves catching the rain, I will see only pity and lichen-shades, barely-there shadows that fall to the street, and the light will be too far away to remember, and the words will be drizzle and maple and green, and before I know it the language will not let me leave it–– the traffic will pass as it always has passed: dependably, rumbling west of the bridge.
November 10, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Maggie Smith
lorimortimer.com
Stumbled upon @shelflifebooksrva.bsky.social while walking around Richmond, VA today. What a great little bookstore! Grabbed The People’s Project for my flight home tonite. Perfect carry-on size. Been on my TBR for a while. Thank you, @theferocity.bsky.social & @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 12:50 AM