An amazing poetry joy - You Could Make This Beautiful (new podcast!)

Here in our Slicing world:

- We choose a word of the year (my post from 2025 and 2026 - the same word!)

- We love poetry and use it to inspire us

- We cherish connecting with authors (I have loved reading about authors visiting your schools, road trips to book signings and random meetings in airports)

- We keep looking for beauty in the world - the small moments we share with each other (I did that here in April 2025 and again in April 2026)

If you know me here, you know I follow Columbus (Ohio) poet Maggie Smith. Do consider following her Substack; it's an A+, especially if you're teaching writing. 

Back in April 2025, Maggie asked her Substack readers to share a poetry prescription - what is aching in their heart & soul? She promised to choose some to follow-up with, to provide a poetry pill for our pains. Well, I quickly grabbed my phone and recorded a voice memo with my quest to find poetry for these days (turns out: years) that are painful and where I want to be a force for good. Braver. Steadier.

I got a lovely response from someone who worked for the show, who must have actually listened, because she's from my hometown, too (shout out Amory!), and we have some email banter, and then... I forget all about it. Life gets busy with work & family; with volunteering and visiting the kids; building community to fight authoritarianism and the systems that hurt and harm people I love; yes, sometimes reading & writing, sometimes tending to getting steady, but mostly just moving forward through the days and seasons.

Until... 

I notice the announcement on Maggie's Substack that her new poetry podcast is coming! She's partnering with writer/reporter Faith Salie, and we should all tune in when the first episodes drop, Friday, August 7. I write a "can't wait" comment on the post, and realize I'll be in a car for 6 hours on August 7 and can listen. Whoo-hoo - I love that serendipity. No memory of Amory's email or even my voice note to favorite famous poet Maggie Smith.

The new podcast is called You Could Make This Beautiful, a nod to one of Maggie's most well-known poems, Good Bones, and as I cue-up the first episode, she reads that beloved poem, and she and Faith talk about how it's going to frame the podcast. Then we're hearing Henry Winkler talk about the poetry of fly fishing, being dyslexic, loving the Hamilton soundtrack, and his own writerly life. The warm conversation is perfect for this car ride.

I pull over to lunch (Culver's - a burger for me, a pup cup for my traveling companion), and flip open my email while I wait. There's a note from Amory:

It's been a lonnnnnnnng time coming, but today is release day for You Could Make This Beautiful — the new poetry podcast miniseries from WBUR (Boston's NPR) co-hosted by Maggie Smith and Faith Salie! Your voice memo request for a "poetry prescription" is featured near the end of the first episode in the series, and Maggie and Faith each had a recommendation for you!

Wait - WHAT?????

My voice memo - huh?

Am I being tracked?

Maggie and Faith have a recommendation for ME??? But I'm listening to them right now!

Well, I hop back on the turnpike and hit play.

Now poet Saeed Jones is chatting away with them, and I'm listening but also, freaking out a little bit: am I going to be on this podcast, and what, praytell, did I say in that voice memo? Why can't I remember? The conversation with Saeed wraps up, and then they tease the final segment, the poetry prescription. And before you know it, I hear my voice:

     ...I'm still operating in a space of dissonance and fear and grief... and I want to step up in a

     bigger, deeper, richer, more confident way... I want to be more steady. So I'd love an

     antidote to all the unsteadiness I'm feeling... 

It's embarrassing to hear myself, but Maggie & Faith aren't judging. They jump right in, validating and responding with warmth and care. Poems with truth and beauty that feel like they were written just for me. I start to cry out there on the turnpike, my chest filled with the beauty and intimacy of the poetry, and the intimacy of someone saying my name out loud and wrapping me in love that comes from tender words that hit me at just the right spot and stay there, like a healing balm. Like the best medicine. A gift for steadiness.

The Spotify show notes are incredible - hot links to every poem, song, book mentioned! (If you need steadiness, please consider reading about W.S. Merwin, a new-to-me poet.) I hope you'll listen, and if you've got a poem prescription for steadiness, please share it in the comments. We need to take care of each other.

Here's the link to the podcast - every episode is amazing: https://open.spotify.com/episode/54ZfaoeBEvFihqbyONOvV0

          In my office...                             also in my office