Louise reads poems9 Nov 2020

Time to be Slow

By John O'Donohue, Time to be Slow seems very apt after spending 3 weeks of the last 4 feeling unwell - taking time to be slow becomes very important when life gets tough.

I enjoy how the poem's rhythm subtly shifts in the middle part of the poem. The start and end of the poem feel slower and has a slight lilt to it, which I think arises from the stressed & unstressed syllables forming groups of 3.

The middle part, the part about bitter weather, withstanding the storm and guarding your own "hesitant light" have more of a rhythm of plodding on. There's also very little punctuation in the 2nd verse, which pulls me on without pause, despite the first line's reminder to be slow.

As the poem comes back to the words "... of yourself" the lilt returns and, as reader, I breathe easier again.

Time to be Slow has featured as one of the Poems on the Underground, you can read it here:

https://poemsontheunderground.org/time-to-be-slow

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