美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Morning Edition' Listeners Stitch Together A Community Poem

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

There is no shortage of classic holiday literature. Think "The Night Before Christmas," "A Christmas Carol," "The Polar Express." Well, MORNING EDITION listeners, get ready to add another work to the canon. Here's our co-host, Rachel Martin.

RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE¹: Earlier this month, we asked you to help us write a poem about the holidays. And you delivered. You seriously delivered. We asked you to send a single line about what you like about this time of year. And we got around a thousand responses - very heartfelt, very thoughtful.

So then we put all these responses to our friend, Kwame Alexander. It was up to him to stitch them together into a kind of community poem. And Kwame is with us in the studio now. We should say he is the New York Times best-selling author of "Solo." He's also the host of "Bookish," which is a new literary variety show on Facebook. Hey, Kwame.

KWAME ALEXANDER: Hello, my friend.

MARTIN: So before we hear the finished product that you have made...

ALEXANDER: Yes.

MARTIN: ...From people's submissions³, as you were reading what people were reflecting on, what stood out to you?

ALEXANDER: Well, I think there were two things, Rachel. One, the number of poems about cinnamon.

MARTIN: Oh, really?

ALEXANDER: People love cinnamon.

MARTIN: There's a lot of cinnamon in people's lives in the holidays (laughter).

ALEXANDER: You know, like, during the ancient times cinnamon was regarded - highly regarded as a gift from the gods. So I get it.

MARTIN: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: I guess the other thing that really connected with me was I felt really good after reading these entries. I often talk about how poetry can help us become more human.

MARTIN: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: Well, I tell you. After reading these lines from these listeners, I felt better. I felt good. I felt inspired. And I felt connected.

MARTIN: Wow. OK, so let's listen to one of the lines that we got. This is a submission² from our listener Cara Houssam (ph).

CARA HOUSSAM: I like listening to my father play the same classic Christmas songs on the piano like he does every single year.

MARTIN: Lovely.

ALEXANDER: Lovely.

MARTIN: Yeah. And we got a lot of responses from children. We want to give a shoutout, many thanks, to the teachers out there who got their entire class to submit lines.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

MARTIN: Very awesome⁵.

ALEXANDER: Go teachers.

MARTIN: So this is a line from Evan Puji (ph).

EVAN PUJI: I like opening presents and playing baseball with my cousin while the adults are drinking wine.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: I don't know what you're talking about, Evan. I have no experience with that at all.

ALEXANDER: The humor and the authenticity⁶. Poetry allows us to capture, like, the human soul entire, all of us, into these really fun, functional⁷ and oftentimes, like Evan showed, funny lines.

MARTIN: Right. So for a lot of people, the holidays bring up tough memories of people they have lost. And that was the case for listener Jenny Keener (ph).

JENNY KEENER: I like my dreams where my mamaw (ph) visits me. She smells of cinnamon and cloves⁸ and warm apple strudel. We discuss love and the Great War and how to make a great potato soup.

MARTIN: I love that because it is a universal experience, grief, but so specific as pertains⁹ to potato soup.

ALEXANDER: (Laughter) You find the joy through the pain, you know?

MARTIN: Right. Right. So community-sourced poems, the thing that we are doing here by taking all these lines and making them into a thing in and of itself, this is something people - artists, writers - have been doing for a long time, right?

ALEXANDER: These are - yeah, these are puzzle pieces, you know, which we, you know, fit together and compose into something, you know, hopefully intelligible¹⁰ and emotional. You have these poems called spine¹¹ poems, which are where kids go into the library and they choose books, and they place the books on top of each other so that the titles of the spines¹² face out, and they create a poem. It's really fun.

MARTIN: Yeah, love it. You and I can do that.

ALEXANDER: Now, the librarians may not like it 'cause the books get all strewed¹³ out...

MARTIN: Right.

ALEXANDER: ...Everywhere, but spine poems...

MARTIN: It's in the name of poetry (laughter).

ALEXANDER: Exactly - really cool way.

MARTIN: All right, without further ado, let's get to our community. We asked all of you to send us a line about what you love the most about the holidays. Kwame, you made an epic¹⁴ poem out of all these lines. And you and I are going to read this thing, right?

ALEXANDER: We are.

MARTIN: OK. Let's do it.

ALEXANDER: (Reading) I like the deepening silence on Christmas Eve after everyone has gone to bed. I lie in my bed waiting, waiting for the promise of a morning in pajamas¹⁵ without the frenzy¹⁶ of rushing to work, the promise of time to cherish my children's smiles and laughter.

MARTIN: (Reading) I like going to my grandma's Hanukkah brunch¹⁷ and eating latkes with all my family. I like meemaw's (ph) oyster¹⁸ dressing¹⁹ stuffed in a 20-pound turkey, tamales to tickle²⁰ my tastebuds.

ALEXANDER: (Reading) I like poinsettia and pine cone²¹ wafting²² through the air, the smell of cinnamon and how it almost tickles²³ the inside of your nose in a warm home on a cold day.

MARTIN: (Reading) I like the extra people in the house, the erasing²⁴ of miles between family.

ALEXANDER: (Reading) Wild cousins that you only see once a year, eccentric aunts with boozy breath that insist on giving you big hugs.

MARTIN: (Reading) I like the hugs and the food and the conversation with presents and inflection and eye contact that we can't replicate²⁵ in this digital world as much as we try.

ALEXANDER: (Reading) I like the look on their faces when I get the present right. I like the kaleidoscope of light set to a holiday rhythm, "Christmas In Hollis Queens" (ph) by Run DMC played by b-boy on his drum machine.

MARTIN: (Reading) When we were stationed abroad, I liked bundling up with my mom and delivering hot chocolate to all the MPs patrolling our base. I like the sights and sounds and sense of awe⁴ as we'd place wreaths on the graves at Arlington Cemetery²⁶.

ALEXANDER: (Reading) I like the bittersweet memories of what Christmas once was and to give in that day to the weeping that waits.

MARTIN: (Reading) What I like at Christmas time is when my mom makes me and my sisters have to wait on the stairs, then takes pictures. And then we go downstairs to open our presents. I like doing this because it's a tradition. And even though it annoys me, I like doing it anyways.

ALEXANDER: (Reading) I like how people tend to be extra, extra good and extra, extra nice. I like hearing my 2-year-old say, wow, lights everywhere we go like it's magic because it is, little sparks of joy reminding us to have hope in the darkness.

MARTIN: (Reading) I like the way the handmade ornaments²⁸ tell stories of my family. And when my daughter asks, Mom, where did this ornament²⁷ come from, I like to tell her the stories, knowing that those memories will travel into the future.

ALEXANDER: Wow.

MARTIN: We did it.

ALEXANDER: We did it.

MARTIN: Everyone out there did it. Thanks so much to all of you for contributing to this poem. Thank you, Kwame, for making it what it was. We appreciate it.

ALEXANDER: Happy holidays to all.

MARTIN: Kwame Alexander, New York Times best-selling author of "Solo" and host of "Bookish" a new show on Facebook. Happy holidays, Kwame.

ALEXANDER: Same to you.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE O'NEILL BROTHERS GROUP'S "HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS (INSTRUMENTAL VERSION)")

1 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。

2 submission   

n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出

参考例句：

• The defeated general showed his submission by giving up his sword.战败将军缴剑表示投降。
• No enemy can frighten us into submission.任何敌人的恐吓都不能使我们屈服。

3 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

4 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

5 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

6 authenticity   

n.真实性

参考例句：

• There has been some debate over the authenticity of his will. 对于他的遗嘱的真实性一直有争论。
• The museum is seeking an expert opinion on the authenticity of the painting. 博物馆在请专家鉴定那幅画的真伪。

7 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

8 cloves   

n.丁香（热带树木的干花，形似小钉子，用作调味品，尤用作甜食的香料）( clove的名词复数 )；蒜瓣(a garlic ~|a ~of garlic)

参考例句：

• My country is rich in cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, and precious stones. 我国盛产肉桂、丁香、生姜、胡椒和宝石。 来自辞典例句
• Ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper and cloves are common spices. 姜、肉豆蔻、肉桂、胡椒、丁香都是常用的香料。 来自辞典例句

9 pertains   

关于( pertain的第三人称单数 )； 有关； 存在； 适用

参考例句：

• When one manages upward, none of these clear and unambiguous symbols pertains. 当一个人由下而上地管理时，这些明确无误的信号就全都不复存在了。
• Her conduct hardly pertains to a lady. 她的行为与女士身份不太相符。

10 intelligible   

adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的

参考例句：

• This report would be intelligible only to an expert in computing.只有计算机运算专家才能看懂这份报告。
• His argument was barely intelligible.他的论点不易理解。

11 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

12 spines   

n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 )；脊椎；（动植物的）刺；书脊

参考例句：

• Porcupines use their spines to protect themselves. 豪猪用身上的刺毛来自卫。
• The cactus has spines. 仙人掌有刺。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

13 strewed   

v.撒在…上( strew的过去式和过去分词 )；散落于；点缀；撒满

参考例句：

• Papers strewed the floor. 文件扔了一地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Autumn leaves strewed the lawn. 草地上撒满了秋叶。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

14 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

15 pajamas   

n.睡衣裤

参考例句：

• At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时，我脱去衣服，换上睡衣。
• He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。

16 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

17 brunch   

n.早午餐

参考例句：

• They eat much the same thing for brunch every day.每天早午餐他们总是吃同样的东西。
• What did you have for your brunch?你早午饭都吃些什么？

18 oyster   

n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人

参考例句：

• I enjoy eating oyster; it's really delicious.我喜欢吃牡蛎，它味道真美。
• I find I fairly like eating when he finally persuades me to taste the oyster.当他最后说服我尝尝牡蛎时，我发现我相当喜欢吃。

19 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。

20 tickle   

v.搔痒，胳肢；使高兴；发痒；n.搔痒，发痒

参考例句：

• Wilson was feeling restless. There was a tickle in his throat.威尔逊只觉得心神不定。嗓子眼里有些发痒。
• I am tickle pink at the news.听到这消息我高兴得要命。

21 cone   

n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果

参考例句：

• Saw-dust piled up in a great cone.锯屑堆积如山。
• The police have sectioned off part of the road with traffic cone.警察用锥形路标把部分路面分隔开来。

22 wafting   

v.吹送，飘送，（使）浮动( waft的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• But that gentle fragrance was clearly wafting from the window. 但那股淡淡的香气，却分明是从母亲的窗户溢出的。 来自互联网
• The picture-like XueGuo, wafting dense flavor of Japan, gives us a kind of artistic enjoyment. 画一般的雪国，飘溢着浓郁的日本风情，给人以美的享受。 来自互联网

23 tickles   

（使）发痒( tickle的第三人称单数 )； （使）愉快，逗乐

参考例句：

• My foot [nose] tickles. 我的脚[鼻子]痒。
• My nose tickles from the dust and I want to scratch it. 我的鼻子受灰尘的刺激发痒，很想搔它。

24 erasing   

v.擦掉( erase的现在分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He was like a sponge, erasing the past, soaking up the future. 他象一块海绵，挤出过去，吸进未来。 来自辞典例句
• Suddenly, fear overtook longing, erasing memories. 突然，恐惧淹没了渴望，泯灭了回忆。 来自辞典例句

25 replicate   

v.折叠，复制，模写；n.同样的样品；adj.转折的

参考例句：

• The DNA of chromatin must replicate before cell division.染色质DNA在细胞分裂之前必须复制。
• It is also easy to replicate,as the next subsection explains.就像下一个小节详细说明的那样，它还可以被轻易的复制。

26 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

27 ornament   

v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物

参考例句：

• The flowers were put on the table for ornament.花放在桌子上做装饰用。
• She wears a crystal ornament on her chest.她的前胸戴了一个水晶饰品。

28 ornaments   

n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The shelves were chock-a-block with ornaments. 架子上堆满了装饰品。
• Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments. 一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。 来自《简明英汉词典》