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May 2024
5m 23s

1111: The Nation by Roy Fisher

American Public Media
About this episode

Today’s poem is The Nation by Roy Fisher.


The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “It’s important for us to avoid what Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka once phrased as “saline consciousness,” that is, the belief that only what lies within our boundaries is worth noticing. We can roam beyond our familiar provinces. Today’s poem satirizes a vision of nationhood that only sees itself in relation to the known and all that has been sanctioned.”


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