美国国家公共电台 NPR NPR Poetry Month: Andrea Davis Pinkney

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now for some poetry. As we celebrate NPR Poetry Month, we've noticed that our Twitter hashtag - #nprpoetry - has attracted some young poets. And we know that teachers around the country sometimes use our Twitter callout to get their students writing. So with that in mind, for our guest poetry curator this week, we called Andrea Davis Pinkney. She is an award-winning children's book author and a poet herself, and she is with us now from our bureau in New York to tell us what tweet-length poems caught her eye this week. Andrea Davis Pinkney, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us once again.

ANDREA DAVIS PINKNEY: Thank you, Michel. Thank you. Nice to be here.

MARTIN: OK. So start us off.

PINKNEY: Well, this came from Jaguar¹ Reader (ph), also known as Jefferson Elementary. This was a first-grader.

(Reading) Spring is like a pencil getting sharpened on the tip because it keeps on growing and growing - flowers.

MARTIN: That's sweet. I love it.

PINKNEY: Pretty nice for a first-grader.

MARTIN: All right. OK. How about another one?

PINKNEY: Well, here we can see teachers really getting embraced by poetry and embracing it themselves. This is from @ReadLit247 247.

She says, (reading) I ask them to climb mountains, to slay² dragons, to spread their wings, to soar above the clouds. They ask me, is this on the test?

(LAUGHTER)

PINKNEY: So she's right in there with them.

MARTIN: You know, that actually leads me to something I wanted to ask you about. You know, when kids are little, a lot of us read or recite, you know, Mother Goose rhymes. But when they get older, it seems like that falls away some. So do you have any thoughts about keeping kids interested in poetry even after they've, you know, outgrown³ the rhymes that we can all probably still recite by heart?

PINKNEY: Michel, poetry is like a hug on paper. So you're exactly right. We get it from the very earliest days, and it can fall off as kids get older. But I think the beauty of poetry is that, a lot of times, it is read aloud. And so the beauty of reading aloud, I think, is a great tool for keeping young readers engaged.

MARTIN: Now, you've written books for kids that profile African-American historical and cultural figures like Sojourner⁴ Truth and Benjamin Banneker and Alvin Ailey, but you also write poems. You write verse. For example, I remember the last time we talked, we talked about "A Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack⁵ Keats, which features a little African-American boy, and you wrote a book about it, "A Poem For Peter." So how do you decide when you're going to do poetry and when you're going to write a book? Is it something that just strikes you? Does - you know, how do you decide?

PINKNEY: Well, in the case of a book like "A Poem For Peter," I was thinking about, what would lend itself to musicality? And in that case, it was, you know, that young Peter, that boy in the snow. I have a new book called "Martin Rising: Requiem⁶ For A King," and that chronicles through a series of docupoems the last days of Martin Luther King's life leading up to his assassination⁷. So I thought that poetry would be a great way to invite readers into that experience and to insulate them from some of the sad things that happened and then also invite them into the transcendence that happens after King's assassination.

MARTIN: Do you have any advice before we let you go for inviting⁸ young people to continue to work in poetry? Do you have any thoughts about how we can continue to invite our young people to try to experiment or just put some words on paper?

PINKNEY: Absolutely. I mean, the beauty of poetry is that you can do it with a friend. You know, sometimes poetry has a reputation of being quiet and contemplative, but it can be loud and interactive⁹. And you can enjoy it with a buddy¹⁰. And so I encourage kids, as they get older, to find a friend, make some poems and share them.

MARTIN: So do you have one more to share with us?

PINKNEY: Yes, I do. So this is a poem from a teenager, and it's from Samaya (ph).

Samaya says, (reading) he sits in silence, ear buds in, isolated¹¹ from the world, staring off into space. I wonder, what is he thinking?

MARTIN: (Laughter) She must be spying on my house.

PINKNEY: And mine.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: That's children's author and poet Andrea Davis Pinkney. Her latest book, as she just told us, is "Martin Rising." It's out now. Thank you so much for speaking with us.

PINKNEY: Thank you, Michel.

MARTIN: And April is still with us, so if you've been thinking hard all month, working on drafts, finalizing¹² that last perfect line in a Limerick, now is the time to tweet it out. Use the hashtag #nprpoetry, and while you're there, check out the other listener poems we've been getting all month.

1 jaguar   

n.美洲虎

参考例句：

• He was green with envy when he saw my new Jaguar car.看见我那辆美洲虎牌新车，他非常妒忌。
• Should you meet a jaguar in the jungle,just turn slowly,walk away.But slowly,never look back.你在丛林中若碰上美洲虎，就慢慢转身走开，可一定要慢，切莫回头看。

2 slay   

v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮

参考例句：

• He intended to slay his father's murderer.他意图杀死杀父仇人。
• She has ordered me to slay you.她命令我把你杀了。

3 outgrown   

长[发展] 得超过（某物）的范围( outgrow的过去分词 )； 长[发展]得不能再要（某物）； 长得比…快； 生长速度超过

参考例句：

• She's already outgrown her school uniform. 她已经长得连校服都不能穿了。
• The boy has outgrown his clothes. 这男孩已长得穿不下他的衣服了。

4 sojourner   

n.旅居者，寄居者

参考例句：

• The sojourner has been in Wales for two weeks. 那个寄居者在威尔士已经逗留了两个星期。 来自互联网
• A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it. 出12:45寄居的、和雇工人、都不可吃。 来自互联网

5 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

6 requiem   

n.安魂曲，安灵曲

参考例句：

• I will sing a requiem for the land walkers.我会给陆地上走的人唱首安魂曲。
• The Requiem is on the list for today's concert.《安魂曲》是这次音乐会的演出曲目之一。

7 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

8 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

9 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

10 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

11 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

12 finalizing   

vt.完成（finalize的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• You may edit registered information any time during the finalizing period. 您可以在规定期限内随时编辑修改注册资料。 来自互联网
• Natsun Trimming & Ironing, Finalizing the Perfection. 40南山整烫，完美在此定格。 来自互联网