Today’s poem is The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “The late poet Donald Hall said that “A poem is one inside talking to another inside.” We live chiefly in our own minds, but poetry allows us to make public our most intimate thoughts. Our true feelings struggle to find expression; our dreams are a valve. But poetry, too, acts as a channel by which we begin to hear ourselves and hear others. ”

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