No one is coming out of the pandemic unaffected. Write a poem about how this past year changed you.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

According to the CDC, more than 130 million Americans are starting this week fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It feels like a moment worth marking. And who better to help us do that than MORNING EDITION poet-in-residence Kwame Alexander? Hey, Kwame.

KWAME ALEXANDER, BYLINE: Hi, Rachel.

MARTIN: So it feels good. I'm not going to lie. Like, at least here in the U.S., it feels like we can breathe. We can finally sort of unclench. I mean, 2020, it just felt like a year of, like, fighting.

ALEXANDER: It was. And now we can fight back. We can fight back with the vaccines and get a sneak peek of what our lives used to be.

MARTIN: Right. And we know the pandemic's not over, but it does sort of feel like we're starting to wake up from this nightmare.

ALEXANDER: It does. I mean, the world has not been so beautiful. It is a relief to see the cease-fire in Gaza. And the vaccines, honestly, as I traveled from London here to the states, I felt blanketed with comfort and hope. But we've got to stay vigilant. We can't say goodbye to social distancing and masks just yet. But we can put away the crippling fear and the stress that shackled us to our homes.

MARTIN: Dr. Anthony Fauci says we've got a ways to go before we see normal normal, right? But, you know, I think we can have permission to explore what that normal might look like. I mean, what about you? What are you excited about returning to?

ALEXANDER: Well, I'm always excited to talk to you.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Yeah, thank you.

ALEXANDER: But it's the simple things. It's the browsing through my local independent bookstore. It's, you know, stuffing my face with popcorn in a dark movie theater and spending time with my family and friends. But as I step back into this world, Rachel, I come out a changed man. I mean, we're all coming out a little different.

MARTIN: Right. How could we not? I mean, so much sickness and loss, civil unrest. And it just seemed to go on and on. No doubt, though, I can say I learned things about myself. I think we all learned things about each other, too. And we just survived.

ALEXANDER: One of my favorite poets, the ebullient Maya Angelou, she understood this most when she wrote, just like the moons and the suns, with the certainty of tides, just like hopes springing high, still I'll rise. And she goes on to say, you may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise.

MARTIN: I love that poem. I love the...

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...Strength in it. I love the audacity of it. So you and I talk a lot about how poetry is this outlet for us to work through whatever is going on with ourselves, whatever's going on in the world. So as we're turning a corner, maybe it's time to sit back and reflect and write a poem about the lessons that we have all learned through this.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, the poetry helps us express and grieve and celebrate. So what did you learn from the lockdown? I know these poetry call-outs we've been doing have given me life. So I got to shout out our marvelous and majestic producer, Kenya Young.

MARTIN: That's right. Kenya Young, our executive producer, this is her last week on the show, so shout out to Kenya.

ALEXANDER: So we're going to ask you to write a poem about how you came out on the other side of all of this. You're going to use as your first line or your inspiration, still I rise.

MARTIN: OK, yes. Send in your best work, and Kwame will do what he does best and create a crowd-sourced poem from all these submissions. We're doing a quick turnaround on this, folks, so get those entries in by Wednesday. Send them to npr.org/lockdownlessons, all one word, lockdownlessons.

ALEXANDER: Mask up, head down, pen to paper, let's go, people.

MARTIN: Let's do it. Kwame Alexander, regular contributor to MORNING EDITION and co-author with James Patterson of "Becoming Muhammad Ali." Thanks, Kwame.

ALEXANDER: Thank you, Rachel.

(SOUNDBITE OF SINITUS TEMPO'S "A STROLE THROUGH SAIGON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.