美国国家公共电台 NPR Don't Put Yourself In A Box, Unless It's On Twitter: Detroit Poet Reads #NPRpoetry

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now, and I hope you are as excited about this as I am, poetry. April is Poetry Month. And on this program, we like to go big on poetry by going small, which is to say we invite your original submissions¹ of Twitter-length poems. And this year, we have a special twist. Every week, a professional poet is keeping an eye on the submissions and is sharing some of the poems that caught his or her eye.

This week, we are joined by jessica Care moore. She is a poet, a playwright² and a performance artist based in Detroit. You might remember jessica from our special program from Detroit last summer, where she shared an original poem to help us kick off a discussion of the 50th anniversary of the Detroit riots³. She's actually in San Francisco this week, so she joins us from member station KQED. Jessica, thank you so much for speaking with us once again.

JESSICA CARE MOORE: Thank you so much. It's National Poetry Month, yay.

MARTIN: Yay. OK, so let's get to it. What caught your eye?

MOORE: The first one that I wanted to read was from Leigh - L-E-I-G-H. And she says, my mother had so many secrets. She expected us to hide them. I don't think it qualified⁴ as abuse, but it was hard not to tell.

You know, with poetry, like the people who are the most honest in maybe the most difficult ways are the most interesting to me. So I - that one really caught my eye - when my mother - because I think everyone's mother has secrets. I'm a mom. I might have a couple of my own, and you keep things from your children sometimes just for their own safety.

MARTIN: That's so beautiful. Yeah, it's a beautiful thought. What's another one?

MOORE: Let me see. One of my others that kind of stuck out to me, this one about the lion. Where is it? It's so funny just scrolling⁵ through Twitter trying to find poems. It's a very interesting thing. This one, oh, Joann O'Donnell (ph).

It said dandelions are lions for wishes blown from our hearts of great thoughts.

I mean, it's just beautiful.

MARTIN: Wow.

MOORE: Go, Joann, whoever you are (laughter). Because the juxtaposition⁶ of dandelions, that, you know, are really forgotten about flowers and something strong like a lion and how dandelions - I think the metaphor⁷ she's using is the dandelions are strong. You know, despite everything, you still see a dandelion. Like, you know, your rose bush might go away, but the dandelions seem to live forever, you know. And so yeah, I liked her's a lot as well.

MARTIN: OK. Give me - give me one more, and we'll talk about it, yeah. Give us one more.

MOORE: OK. This is pretty. She slides next to me softly, doors percuss (ph), start of storm, almond eyes, implore⁸, outside, please. Together, we endure sideways rain. And it's called Storm Tonight. That's Clyde the Poet. I like sideways rain. It's rainy in San Francisco right now too, so yeah, something just very soft about it. He's clearly talking about somebody he loves with almond eyes. And maybe they're - I don't know - they're inside because it's raining. And the rain is sideways because maybe they're comfortable. You know, I don't know. It's just simple and soft. And doors percuss, which is really a pretty line to me.

MARTIN: That's great. Well, thank you for doing that. Thank you for reading through. And thank you for, you know, taking the time to give us that kind of - your careful attention to these submissions. You can tell that they're all very, you know, heartfelt. I mean, I sort of have this image of people kind of - some people like tossing⁹ them off on the bus when they're on their way to work, and some people maybe writing them on a napkin. You know what I mean? I just have this image of people kind of - but before we let you go, I wanted to ask because you perform as well. Do you have any guidance for people or sort of tips for people if they would like to perform their work or deliver their work the way - nobody can do it the way you do, but, I mean, do you know what I mean?

MOORE: There's a lot of great poets who know how to rock a mic. So I would say absolutely study your craft, and read everything. Read everybody. Read indigenous¹⁰ poets. Read Asian poets. Read African-American - poets of the African diaspora. Read European, American poets. Read the greats in all genres¹¹ from different cultures and in different languages. If you got to grasp on another language, you know, do that. And so yeah, I say be open to all things. And don't limit yourself with boxes and labels.

MARTIN: All right. Well, that's jessica Care moore, poet, playwright, performance artist. Before we let you go, a few gentle reminders¹². This is not a contest. It is a community project. The point is not to win or lose or even to get your poem on the air. It is to create a space where listeners can share their poems and read the work of others. So please take a deep breath and get back to writing. Our hashtag is #nprpoetry. jessica Care moore, thank you so much for the tips. Thank you for reading the work. And thank you so much.

MOORE: I appreciate you. Thank you so much.

1 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

2 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

3 riots   

n. 暴乱, 骚乱, 暴动 vi. 骚乱, 闹事

参考例句：

• the instigators of the riots 煽动骚乱的人
• The riots are a clear manifestation of the people's discontent. 骚乱清楚地表明了人们的不满情绪。

4 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

5 scrolling   

n.卷[滚]动法，上下换行v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的现在分词 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕

参考例句：

• Another important detail required by auto-scrolling is a time delay. 自动滚屏需要的另一个重要细节是时间延迟。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• In 2D visualization and drawing applications, vertical and horizontal scrolling are common. 在二维的可视化及绘图应用中，垂直和水平滚动非常普遍。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

6 juxtaposition   

n.毗邻，并置，并列

参考例句：

• The juxtaposition of these two remarks was startling.这两句话连在一起使人听了震惊。
• It is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors.这是并列对比色的结果。

7 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

8 implore   

vt.乞求，恳求，哀求

参考例句：

• I implore you to write. At least tell me you're alive.请给我音讯，让我知道你还活着。
• Please implore someone else's help in a crisis.危险时请向别人求助。

9 tossing   

v.（轻轻或漫不经心地）扔( toss的现在分词 )；（使）摇荡；摇匀；（为…）掷硬币决定

参考例句：

• Poor Joan has been tossing around all night with that fever. 可怜的琼因发烧而一整夜辗转不能入睡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The two boys agreed to decide the matter by tossing a coin. 这两个孩子同意用掷硬币的方法来决定这件事。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

11 genres   

（文学、艺术等的）类型，体裁，风格( genre的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Novel and short story are different genres. 长篇小说和短篇小说是不同的类别。
• But confusions over the two genres have a long history. 但是类型的混淆，古已有之。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

12 reminders   

n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• The strike has delayed the mailing of tax reminders. 罢工耽搁了催税单的投寄。