美国国家公共电台 NPR Poem For Your Thoughts: Your Memories Of Love, Captured In Poetry

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Are you ready? It's almost Valentine's Day. Poet Kwame Alexander sure is. He wrote the young adult novel "Solo," and Kwame is not waiting until Wednesday to celebrate.

KWAME ALEXANDER: It's Valentine's Day week.

MARTIN: It's Valentine's Day week, which is why you're here.

ALEXANDER: I celebrate it every day. I'm in love with love, Rachel.

MARTIN: Kwame, the last time you were here with us, we asked our listeners to write us and share a specific moment in their life about love. We're going to go through a few of these that you selected in particular. We're going to match these moments with poems. And the first one - let's start with Angela Reece. She sent us this message.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANGELA REECE: Sunny day in a hammock with my lover, Tia. All I can remember is the golden light and her smile, the perfect way we fit together. I knew then I was sunk and in love.

ALEXANDER: Wow.

MARTIN: So when our producer got in touch with Angela, she said that she and her partner were getting married. They're getting married on Valentine's Day. So we want to say congratulations to Angela and Tia. So, Kwame, what poem did you find to pair with Angela's moment?

ALEXANDER: This is a poem I found by E. Ethelbert Miller¹. It's one of my favorite. It's called "Toothpaste." (Reading) After dinner, you have the habit of curling up in the couch like a tube of toothpaste, all bent², funny and nice. I like to brush after every meal.

(LAUGHTER)

ALEXANDER: Isn't that beautiful?

MARTIN: I love it. I love it.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

MARTIN: All right. So predictably, when you ask people to share love stories, they're going to run the gamut³ in terms of emotions. And Brenda Honsinger sent in this to us. She writes as follows (reading) my late husband always seemed to have a cup of tea for me when we were at places that didn't offer tea. While cleaning and donating his clothing after he died, I found a tea bag in every pocket. Oh, how I miss being taken care of like that.

ALEXANDER: I have a poem for Brenda. It's by a friend of mine named Jennifer Gresham. It's called "Missing You."

MARTIN: OK.

ALEXANDER: (Reading) The blue cheese dressing⁴ rattles⁵ inside the refrigerator door, half empty. I thought about opening it, drenching⁶ each red-green leaf just to fill my mouth with something that you loved.

So my mom passed away in September, and I remember taking her suitcase and traveling with it to try to remember her, to try to carry her with me. And I remembered this poem from 10 years ago, from reading it. It really stuck with me, and it applied⁷ to me, and I think it applied to Brenda.

MARTIN: So we heard a lot of messages from listeners about losing loved ones. We also heard several stories about that moment when you hold your first baby for the first time.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

MARTIN: And this is what Angela Cryan said.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANGELA CRYAN: The night my son was born, I didn't put him down for three hours. When I finally did put him down, randomly⁸ I said, I love you, love you, love you. That has been our nightly ritual for every night of his life - three I love yous because once was never enough.

MARTIN: That is such a lovely experience. For those of us who are parents, we remember holding those newborns for the very first time. What poem did you find to match that?

ALEXANDER: And that's the beauty of poetry, Rachel, is that it captures those moments for those of us who've experienced them and for those of us who haven't.

MARTIN: Right.

ALEXANDER: They can sort of find their way. This is "A Newborn Girl At Passover" by Nan Cohen. (Reading) Consider one apricot in a basket of them. It is very much like all the other apricots - an individual already, skin and seed. Now, think of this day, one you will probably forget, the next breath you take, a long drink of air. Holiday or not, it doesn't matter. A child is born and doesn't know what day it is. The particular joy in my heart, she cannot imagine. The taste of apricots is in store for her.

MARTIN: Mmm (ph).

ALEXANDER: Right?

MARTIN: That's good, yeah, the anticipation⁹ of a life - right? - and everything that that baby's going to experience.

ALEXANDER: I'm feeling all the love today.

MARTIN: Oh, I know you are. So that's, like, the new love of a new baby. And then there's the love that you've been sitting with for a long time. This is, of course, what happens in a long-term relationship, and Lisa Gildehaus sent us this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LISA GILDEHAUS: What's the poem for waking up in the morning, curling up to someone you love and imprinting¹¹ that moment in my mind? Rough times are behind, and they are certainly are ahead. But for this one beautiful moment, I curl up, rest my cheek and know that it's all extraordinary and yet so every day.

MARTIN: You went to work on this one. You wrote an original poem for her.

ALEXANDER: I did.

Love is an art, and this canvas called life can be vast and lonesome without a full heart to trust, without a joyful¹² noise to share, without you.

MARTIN: Kwame Alexander is the author of the young adult novel "Solo" and the publisher of Versify. It's a new imprint¹⁰ from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kwame, thank you so much.

ALEXANDER: Rachel, I got nothing but love for you.

MARTIN: Ditto, thanks my friend.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE")

ZACARI: (Singing) Love me, just love me.

KENDRICK LAMAR: (Rapping) I want to be with you. I want to be...

1 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

2 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

3 gamut   

n.全音阶，(一领域的)全部知识

参考例句：

• The exhibition runs the whole gamut of artistic styles.这次展览包括了所有艺术风格的作品。
• This poem runs the gamut of emotions from despair to joy.这首诗展现了从绝望到喜悦的感情历程。

4 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

5 rattles   

（使）发出格格的响声， （使）作嘎嘎声( rattle的第三人称单数 )； 喋喋不休地说话； 迅速而嘎嘎作响地移动，堕下或走动； 使紧张，使恐惧

参考例句：

• It rattles the windowpane and sends the dog scratching to get under the bed. 它把窗玻璃震得格格作响，把狗吓得往床底下钻。
• How thin it is, and how dainty and frail; and how it rattles. 你看它够多么薄，多么精致，多么不结实；还老那么哗楞哗楞地响。

6 drenching   

n.湿透v.使湿透( drench的现在分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体）

参考例句：

• A black cloudburst was drenching Siena at midday. 中午，一场天昏地暗的暴风雨在锡耶纳上空倒下来。 来自辞典例句
• A drenching rain poured down and the rising hurricane drove it in sheets along the ground. 一阵倾盆大雨泼下来了，越来越大的狂风把它顺着地面刮成了一片一片的雨幕。 来自辞典例句

7 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

8 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

9 anticipation   

n.预期，预料，期望

参考例句：

• We waited at the station in anticipation of her arrival.我们在车站等着，期待她的到来。
• The animals grew restless as if in anticipation of an earthquake.各种动物都变得焦躁不安，像是感到了地震即将发生。

10 imprint   

n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记

参考例句：

• That dictionary is published under the Longman imprint.那本词典以朗曼公司的名义出版。
• Her speech left its imprint on me.她的演讲给我留下了深刻印象。

11 imprinting   

n.胚教，铭记（动物生命早期即起作用的一种学习机能）；印记

参考例句：

• He gathered her to himself, imprinting kisses upon her lips and cheeks. 他把她抱过来，吻着她的嘴唇和面颊。 来自辞典例句
• It'seems likely that imprinting is an extreme case of conditioning. 看来似乎铭记是适应的一种极端的情况。 来自辞典例句

12 joyful   

adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的

参考例句：

• She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
• They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。