Today’s poem is Zelda Fitzgerald by Aria Aber. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “We have a long history in American poetry of dramatic monologues, of taking on a character in our own expression. Lately, however, I’ve had trouble working out the ethics of portraying someone other than myself. And yet, as one poet says, the dramatic monologue has been an important tool in recuperating silenced voices. Today’s phenomenal poem does just that. It avoids what my friend Akshya calls the “performance of marginality” by portraying a full, interior life of a woman writer, whose story of mental illness often eclipses her genius.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp