Updated April 7, 2021 at 11:53 AM ET
Every April, in honor of National Poetry Month, we call on our audience (yes, you!) to help us celebrate the art of the verse.
Keeping with NPR tradition, we're asking for your original poems: haiku, couplets, free form, you name it. This year — our spoken wordsmiths may be pleased to know — we're adding TikTok to the mix.
How to share your poem
On Twitter: Tweet your poem, in 140 characters or less, with the hashtag #NPRpoetry.
On TikTok: Post your poem to your TikTok page using #NPRpoetry. Remember to keep it to no more than 15 seconds and, of course, radio friendly.
Each week for the rest of the month, a professional poet will join All Things Considered to talk about some of the submissions that caught their eye. We'll continue to update this page with those conversations.
(Note: Your submission will be governed by our generalTerms of UseandPrivacy Policy. NPR may publish your submission in any media or format and/or use it for journalistic and/or commercial purposes generally, and may allow others to do so.)
"We're All Poets"
TikTok isn't just for dancing. Ayanna Albertson (@untouchableyann) has found success on the video-sharing platform through her spoken-word poetry. She helps us kick off National Poetry Month with an original poem and shares her wisdom for budding poets.
"We're all poets," she says. "I don't mean that to minimize the art of poetry, but there is always someone who needs to hear what you have to say."
"Stay Grounded"
Franny Choi, co-host of the VS podcast from the Poetry Foundation and author of the poetry collection Soft Science, shares a few of her favorite listener-submitted poems. Check them out below, and click the audio link to hear what struck her about her picks.
fear has created its own love language—
— Kaite McKenna (@KaiteMcKenn) April 2, 2021
text me when you get home
call me when you’re off the bus
you can crash here if you need to
please get home safe#NPRPoetry
Little Gnat
— Lucas Lou's Dad (@LucasLousDad) April 1, 2021
Please little gnat
Please don’t fly
Through the screen of the window
And into my eye#NPRPoetry
Choi's advice for amateur poets?
"Stay grounded in the concrete things," she said. "Stay grounded in your five senses and the things that you can taste and smell and touch. I think there's a tendency to go really big and philosophical and feel like you need to have this great big answer to enormous questions. But actually, I think our job as poets is just to create a little bit of language that encapsulates just the small thing about our lives that might fly into the heart of somebody else through words."
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