According to your pet: share a poem

Share a poem in the voice of your pet

Jess Eng/NPR

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Jess Eng/NPR

Share a poem in the voice of your pet

Jess Eng/NPR

One thing that’s nice about having pets, they give you unconditional love. But how might they think about you if they could speak for themselves? Poet-in-residence Kwame Alexander is asking you to answer that question in the form of a poem.

For inspiration, he offers Billy Collins poem, ‘A Dog on his Master’:

As young as I look, I am growing older faster than he, seven to one is the ratio they tend to say.

Whatever the number, I will pass him one day and take the lead the way I do on our walks in the woods.

And if this ever manages to cross his mind, it would be the sweetest shadow I have ever cast on snow or grass.

So give your dog, cat, goldfish a voice. How do they feel about you? Share your poem through the form below. Then Alexander will take lines from some of your pieces and create a community crowdsourced poem that will be read on-air and published online, where contributors will be credited.

This callout will close on Dec. 9, at 1 pm ET.

By providing your Submission to us, you agree that you have read, understand and accept the following terms in relation to the content and information (your “Submission”) you are providing to National Public Radio (“NPR,” “us” or “our”):

You are submitting content pursuant to a callout by Morning Edition related to a segment with Kwame Alexander wherein he creates unique poetry based on listener submissions. You understand that you are submitting content for the purpose of having Kwame use that content to create a new poem or poems (“Poem”) with the material you submit. You must be over the age of 18 to submit material.

You will retain copyright in your Submission, but agree that NPR and/or Kwame Alexander may edit, modify, use, excerpt, publish, adapt or otherwise make derivative works from your Submission and use your Submission or derivative works in whole or in part in any media or format and/or use the Submission or Poem for journalistic and/or promotional purposes generally, and may allow others to do so. You understand that the Poem created by Kwame Alexander will be a new creative work and may be distributed through NPR’s programs (or other media), and the Poem and programs can be separately subject to copyright protection. Your Submission does not plagiarize or otherwise infringe any third-party copyright, moral rights or any other intellectual property rights or similar rights. You have not copied any part of your Submission from another source. If your Submission is selected for inclusion in the Poem, you will be acknowledged in a list of contributors on NPR’s website or otherwise receive appropriate credit, but failure to do so shall not be deemed a breach of your rights.

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