slow down, friend – a poem
doing the work of un-hurrying
It’s my first newsletter! If you’re getting this as an email, you joined my list at an art gallery or market. And welcome to anyone else reading!
Feel free to scroll past this next part if you just want to read my poem. I’m just sharing about who I am and why I’m writing.
Who I Am and Why I’m Writing
I was trapped by social media and decompressing by binge watching tv shows and eating Slim Chickens. My studies were in music theory and composition. I was working in a church as a music tech and then worship leader for about ten years (part time and full time).
I loved event production, design, and the church, but I struggled with the shows on Sundays. I was writing music, wood working, and making art on the weekends.
my late identities
(Here's one of the paintings I created during this season. You can see the artwork and read more about it here.)
A small family of spiritual brothers and sisters were walking alongside us while my wife and I rethought our ecclesiology (fancy word for how we understand the church is structured). We reread the Gospels and prayed.
After about two and a half years, we felt a clear word from God to my wife and I and we decided to make a change in work.
My anxiety revealed itself. I pushed my mind/body/spirit to the limits.
Then we were blessed with two babies within two years.
So from that background, I’ll be sharing my poetry, art, and music here as I create it.
I hope to help you slow for a moment and engage your mind and spirit through my work.
So, here’s a poem I wrote…
slow down, friend
by Durgan Maxey
slow down, friend hear your soul is weeping, it can’t keep up Efficiency told Love, “I can do it better” working and never catching up and working and never catching up to yourself days filled to the brim your mind competing with computers captivated by conveniences body filled with preservatives suppressed by tensions soul fighting with demons crushed by pleasantries mine too let’s slow down, friend
Listen to the audio version
of me reading the poem “slow down, friend”
Un-hurrying is hard
“Slow down, friend! Ha! Easy for you to say.”
I know, I know. Easy to say and pretty difficult to do.
It means change.
It’s against the flow of my culture and traditions.
My wife and I read The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer and it really helped us evaluate our relationship with time, nature, God, and our bodies.
I recommend it if you're seeking to slow.
I don’t think of slowing as the end goal. It’s a forming work that spreads into everything.
More to come.
-Durgan