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 submissions 1 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 playwright 2 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 riots 3. 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 qualified 4 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 scrolling 5 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 juxtaposition 6 of dandelions, that, you know, are really forgotten about flowers and something strong like a lion and how dandelions - I think the metaphor 7 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, implore 8, 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 tossing 9 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 indigenous 10 poets. Read Asian poets. Read African-American - poets of the African diaspora. Read European, American poets. Read the greats in all genres 11 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 reminders 12. 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.