RAY SUAREZ, HOST:
Now let's take a moment to appreciate some of the poetry that's been coming in this month as part of our celebration of National Poetry Month. We've been asking you, our listeners, to tweet 140-character-or-less poems using the hashtag #NPRpoetry. So far, we've had submissions about love and break-ups, politics, road trips, even DNA. We've gotten Earth Day-appropriate submissions, like this from Barry Goodmann in Northern New Jersey. (Reading) I look for poems in the field and pull out dandelions. Every morning, they grow back and sing revise, revise.
I know the feeling, Barry. Thanks for your poem. Here's one from Phil Boiarski, who's back tweeting poems with us for the second year in a row. Here's one (reading) take to the woods to escape the world. Emerald light blue in the sky, violets and bluets kiss my boots. Bloodroot catches my eye.
Thanks for participating again, Phil. And speaking of familiar faces or rather voices - since this is radio - some of you might remember my interview last week with poet Kevin Coval about his collection of poems "A People's History Of Chicago." We asked him to pick a couple of your NPR poetry submissions. Here he is.
KEVIN COVAL: Hey. This is Kevin Coval. And this is a poem by Grace Keneya (ph). And, Grace, I apologize if I chopped up your last name, but I like your poem. It goes like this. (Reading) Sometimes I take a walk by just to remind myself of days gone by. Sometimes I pass there wishing to catch your face, a glimpse.
It's not bad, man. It's pretty good.
SUAREZ: Thanks, Grace and Kevin, for reading her poem.
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SUAREZ: And if you'd like to submit a poem, there's only one more week left in April, so get to writing and get to tweeting. Share your original works using the hashtag #NPRpoetry and you might hear your poem on the air. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.