美国国家公共电台 NPR--Write a poem to a friend for NPR

Write a poem to a friend for NPR

Transcript¹

For the latest "Morning Edition" community poem, Rachel Martin and poet Kwame Alexander ask listeners for poetry submissions². This round, the call-out is for poems in letter, or epistolary, form.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm joined now by MORNING EDITION's poet in residence, Kwame Alexander. Hey, Kwame.

KWAME ALEXANDER, BYLINE³: Hey, Rachel. Rachel Martin, I got a question for you.

MARTIN: OK.

ALEXANDER: What did the envelope say to the stamp?

MARTIN: (Laughter) I do not know. What?

ALEXANDER: Stick with me. Oh, the places we will go (laughter).

MARTIN: Oh, perfection.

ALEXANDER: Well, I do aim to please. You know, that clever little joke holds some truth, though. We're living in a download era. And certainly, texting and social media keep us connected, but I would posit⁴ that good old-fashioned letter writing shows us how much we cherish the recipient⁵, and research proves that writing letters makes us happier.

MARTIN: Totally. I mean, liking⁶ my best friend's IG post is not as meaningful as tucking a photo into an envelope beside a heartfelt letter on her birthday or texting my kid ILY definitely is not the same thing as writing out I love you.

ALEXANDER: The letters matter, Rachel. Spell them out. Spell them out.

MARTIN: Letters are personal and intimate. There's something special about learning someone's handwriting, too, right? Learning if they write in cursive, hearing the softness in their punctuation⁷.

ALEXANDER: Wait, wait. Let me find out - you hear letters, Rachel Martin.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Writing is therapeutic⁸. You're giving yourself all this space to get down what you want, what you have to say. And the waiting for the reply is the fun part.

ALEXANDER: Exactly. The author Amos Russell Wells said it best - (reading) to write a good letter, take a handful of grit⁹, a plenty of time and a little of wit, take patience to set it, and stir it all up.

MARTIN: So, listeners, we want you to stir it all up and find the time to write a letter to someone - a neighbor, a boss, a child, a lost lover maybe, a park ranger¹⁰, anyone - about something meaningful and significant to you.

ALEXANDER: Yes. We are going to do an epistolary poem, from the Latin epistola, for letter. So we are quite literally¹¹ going to write poems that read as letters. They can tell a story. They can ask something. They can report. They can inform. They can just be.

MARTIN: OK, so we're going to give you an example. Here's an excerpt¹² of an epistolary poem by the poet Afaa Michael Weaver¹³. It's called "Midnight Air In Louisville."

(Reading) Dear Breonna, how many times, I ask. How many times have I chased the thought of writing to you, of catching¹⁴ the poem where it cannot leave, of knocking open the door to a grief we all hold, our hearts full of questions. We leave our houses to work, to look for what we need to live or what we need to make the pain go away.

ALEXANDER: Wow. And here's an excerpt from "Dear David" by the poet Matthew Burgess.

(Reading) This morning I looked for your book online and almost bought it from the evil giant but bulked. Instead, I wrote a poem in bed about a faux leopard¹⁵ jacket while drinking coffee from a Bette Midler mug.

And then the poem goes on to talk about his morning and how he finally discovers the book.

MARTIN: OK, so let's write to each other, friends. Let's communicate this way. Submit your works to npr.org/letterpoem, and then Kwame will do what he does. He'll take all those submissions and turn them into one beautiful community poem. Kwame Alexander is a regular contributor to MORNING EDITION and the host of the reality show "America's Next Great Author."

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 submissions   

n.提交( submission的名词复数 )；屈从；归顺；向法官或陪审团提出的意见或论据

参考例句：

• The deadline for submissions to the competition will be Easter 1994. 递交参赛申请的截止时间为1994年的复活节。 来自辞典例句
• Section 556(d) allows the agency to substitute written submissions for oral direct testimony in rulemaking. 第五百五十六条第（四）款准允行政机关在规则制定中用书面提交材料替代口头的直接证言。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 posit   

v.假定，认为

参考例句：

• If she needs salvation,she will posit a savior.如果她需要救助，她就会设想一个救助者。
• Other historians posit that she died of old age around 550 BC.别的史学家则认为她一直活到公元前550年左右才寿终正寝。

5 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

6 liking   

n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢

参考例句：

• The word palate also means taste or liking.Palate这个词也有“口味”或“嗜好”的意思。
• I must admit I have no liking for exaggeration.我必须承认我不喜欢夸大其词。

7 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

8 therapeutic   

adj.治疗的，起治疗作用的；对身心健康有益的

参考例句：

• Therapeutic measures were selected to fit the patient.选择治疗措施以适应病人的需要。
• When I was sad,music had a therapeutic effect.我悲伤的时候，音乐有治疗效力。

9 grit   

n.沙粒，决心，勇气；v.下定决心，咬紧牙关

参考例句：

• The soldiers showed that they had plenty of grit. 士兵们表现得很有勇气。
• I've got some grit in my shoe.我的鞋子里弄进了一些砂子。

10 ranger   

n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员

参考例句：

• He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
• He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。

11 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

12 excerpt   

n.摘录，选录，节录

参考例句：

• This is an excerpt from a novel.这是一部小说的摘录。
• Can you excerpt something from the newspaper? 你能从报纸上选录些东西吗？

13 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

14 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

15 leopard   

n.豹

参考例句：

• I saw a man in a leopard skin yesterday.我昨天看见一个穿着豹皮的男人。
• The leopard's skin is marked with black spots.豹皮上有黑色斑点。