美国国家公共电台 NPR Love Is: A Crowdsourced Valentine's Day Poem

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

A poet once said, there's a lot of love around us. But if our hearts aren't open, we won't see it. That poet is Kwame Alexander. And he is here with us on MORNING EDITION to celebrate Valentine's Day. Hey, Kwame.

KWAME ALEXANDER: Hey. I knew that sounded familiar.

MARTIN: (Laughter) Right?

ALEXANDER: (Laughter).

MARTIN: So is your heart open?

ALEXANDER: Always with you, Rachel. Happy Valentine's Day.

MARTIN: Happy Valentine's Day. So when we were last together, we asked teachers to share a prompt with their students about love, right?

ALEXANDER: Yes. We asked students to fill in the blank, love is - and I hear we had an overwhelming response.

MARTIN: We did. We got more than 2,000 entries from across the country. And you have brought a friend in with you today, a teacher, to share what it's like to do one of these prompt poems. Ann Marie Stephens is a children's book author and first grade teacher in Manassas, Va. And she's in our studios. Ann Marie, thanks for being here.

ANN MARIE STEPHENS: Thank you for having me.

ALEXANDER: Hey, Ann Marie.

STEPHENS: Hi, Kwame.

MARTIN: All right. So, Ann Marie, this was not your first time doing a poetry prompt. Can you tell us how this went down?

STEPHENS: Yeah. I actually began with a totally different idea. I started with sadness. So we did the prompt, sadness is...

MARTIN: Wait. Ann Marie, that's the opposite of the...

STEPHENS: It is. It is.

MARTIN: ...Valentine's Day love prompt (laughter).

STEPHENS: But every kid has felt sadness.

MARTIN: Yeah.

STEPHENS: And when you're in first grade, you want to tell every detail about it.

MARTIN: Oh.

STEPHENS: So they gave me a lot of details about sadness. And then I switched it up to, love is - and we had to get past a lot of, ew, and, gross. Once that happened, I said to them, love isn't just hugging and kissing and other gross stuff.

(LAUGHTER)

STEPHENS: It can be loving an animal, like a dog, or loving a country, like Mexico...

MARTIN: Yeah.

STEPHENS: ...Or loving a food, like popcorn¹ and that there were no wrong answers. So after I told them all of this, they ran off and grabbed the poetry paper and started writing. And they were coming out with lines like, love is when your dad comes home from war.

MARTIN: So in general, why poetry? I mean, why do you think that's important to carve out time in your teaching?

STEPHENS: Poetry isn't just important. In my eyes, it's necessary. I believe that schools are testing our kids to the point of exhaustion². And so we end up knowing where they are academically, but we don't know where they are emotionally and mentally and physically³. And poetry helps us do that. When kids can write poems, they get to share their backgrounds and their experiences and their interpretations⁴ of the world with everyone else. And once we get to know our kids, our students, like that, really get to know them, we can teach them anything.

MARTIN: Let's hear some of your students' poems.

STEPHENS: Yeah. So first, you're going to hear two of my former students, Simone Ward⁵ and Siany Valdez. And they're both 8 now. And then you're going to hear from one of my current first graders, Anderson Garcia. And he's 7.

SIMONE WARD: Love is kind. Love is peace. Love is happiness and sadness because sometimes, someone leaves you. And you still love them. Love is everything.

SIANY VALDEZ: Love is stronger than mean. I know this because I see it in my heart. I see it in my teacher's smile. I see it when I'm with my family. I know you are loved, too. I see it in your eyes.

ANDERSON GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).

STEPHENS: So to translate that last poem, it means, love is when my heart opens and I see chocolate hearts twirling around my eyes.

MARTIN: Those are amazing. Those were surprisingly moving. Thank you for sharing those.

STEPHENS: You're welcome.

ALEXANDER: Kids finding their voice and lifting it up for love - I mean, Rachel, there's nothing more powerful than that.

MARTIN: Right? So just like Ann Marie, teachers from around the country shared this prompt with their students, love is - teachers like Mr. Lawson at Franklin Township Middle School West and Ms. Rockwood at Lewiston Elementary School.

ALEXANDER: And don't forget the high schools. We got to shout them out, too. Several teachers at Norwood High School in Massachusetts used our prompt with their students.

MARTIN: OK. So, Kwame, you took all these beautiful, individual entries and, basically, treated them like ingredients and made one big, delicious - I don't know - paella, big casserole of poetry.

ALEXANDER: We got a gumbo. You ready to dig in?

MARTIN: Yeah, gumbo. OK. Yeah, let's do it.

ALEXANDER: Love is flying to the moon when you see each other, that intricate Rubik's Cube that takes you light years to unravel⁶, the missing piece that fulfills⁷ every puzzle.

MARTIN: Love is bad lo mein and "Moana" on a Wednesday night, the feeling you get when you find the perfect series on Netflix. Love is happiness, tiny, puppy kisses, sister hugs, the brother she misses.

ALEXANDER: Love is flower. You are its seed. What is love if not naive⁸ hearts set ablaze⁹, the flames of which gradually extinguish to finally expose the remains¹⁰ of what once was, a make-believe connection.

MARTIN: Love is basically just an attraction you get so humans can repopulate. Of course, you love your parents. They're the ones who created you. But what do you mean by that? Do you love them for creating you, only to die? Love isn't real. Love is fairy tale weddings and happily ever after.

ALEXANDER: Love is unexplainable, unexpected, something you can't find but it somehow finds you, the thing that makes you want to stay, the smell of fresh daisies and laundry sheets.

MARTIN: Love is patient. Love is scary. Love is learning. Love is confusing.

ALEXANDER: It's the gathering¹¹ together, removing evil forces, starting discourses¹², the comfortable silence shared. Love is an idea everyone should be allowed the right of in whichever way they choose.

MARTIN: Love is a game of chess. You will never win until you make a move. Love is saying sorry when I hate to be wrong. Love is when even though you might not want to do it, you do it because you love your parents. Love is accepting everyone no matter their beliefs, no matter what they look like.

ALEXANDER: Difficult but not insurmountable, love is a mountain, a journey not undertaken lightly, a reward not gained easily. Love is a song from Kendrick Lamar. That's it. Love is a day full of hugs, a safe place to stay, to be.

MARTIN: Well done.

ALEXANDER: Thank you. I mean, we can learn a lot about love and loving and being loved from the kids.

MARTIN: Absolutely. Kwame Alexander is the founding editor of Versify, an imprint¹³ from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. And he's partnering with librarians around the country on his #AllBooksForAllKids initiative. Kwame, this feels like the right point to queue up some Kendrick Lamar. Shall we?

ALEXANDER: Let's do it. One love, Rachel.

MARTIN: One love.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE")

KENDRICK LAMAR: (Singing) Love me.

1 popcorn   

n.爆米花

参考例句：

• I like to eat popcorn when I am watching TV play at home.当我在家观看电视剧时，喜欢吃爆米花。
• He still stood behind his cash register stuffing his mouth with popcorn.他仍站在收银机后，嘴里塞满了爆米花。

2 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

3 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

4 interpretations   

n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 )；表演；演绎；理解

参考例句：

• This passage is open to a variety of interpretations. 这篇文章可以有各种不同的解释。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The involved and abstruse passage makes several interpretations possible. 这段艰涩的文字可以作出好几种解释。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

6 unravel   

v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开

参考例句：

• He was good with his hands and could unravel a knot or untangle yarn that others wouldn't even attempt.他的手很灵巧，其他人甚至都不敢尝试的一些难解的绳结或缠在一起的纱线，他都能解开。
• This is the attitude that led him to unravel a mystery that long puzzled Chinese historians.正是这种态度使他解决了长期以来使中国历史学家们大惑不解的谜。

7 fulfills   

v.履行（诺言等）( fulfill的第三人称单数 )；执行（命令等）；达到（目的）；使结束

参考例句：

• He always fulfills his promises. 他总是履行自己的诺言。 来自辞典例句
• His own work amply fulfills this robust claim. 他自己的作品在很大程度上实现了这一正确主张。 来自辞典例句

8 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

9 ablaze   

adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的

参考例句：

• The main street was ablaze with lights in the evening.晚上，那条主要街道灯火辉煌。
• Forests are sometimes set ablaze by lightning.森林有时因雷击而起火。

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

11 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

12 discourses   

论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语

参考例句：

• It is said that his discourses were very soul-moving. 据说他的讲道词是很能动人心灵的。
• I am not able to repeat the excellent discourses of this extraordinary man. 这位异人的高超言论我是无法重述的。

13 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。