We're Looking For Poems On Teamwork

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

National Poetry Month just ended, but, really, when is it ever not time for a poem? MORNING EDITION is teaming with our contributor and poet Kwame Alexander, and we need your help. We need you to submit a poem made of couplets.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Couplets did you say, Steve, couplets? Well, what are those, you wonder? Well, here's a clip from Rachel Martin's conversation with Kwame Alexander. He read an excerpt from his new book on our program yesterday.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

KWAME ALEXANDER: (Reading) Game so deep, it's below. Air so swift, you breathe slow. Watch me fly from the free throw. Superman is sweet, yo. But Rachel is my heat, bro.

RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: Come on.

ALEXANDER: (Laughter).

MARTIN: It doesn't say that in the book, but I like that refresh (ph) (laughter).

ALEXANDER: Well, I added that line for you, Rachel. But a couplet is really easy. It's two lines, and the lines rhyme. And we want it to be about teamwork, having a team around you to help you rebound on and off the court. Take it literally, or you can take it metaphorically.

MARTIN: Yeah.

INSKEEP: The NPR headquarters here has one of those electronic signs with news headlines creeping across them this morning. The headlines included a poetry call-out.

GREENE: And to submit your two-line poem about teamwork - something we know a lot about at this show - you can go to npr.org/morningpoem. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.