MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Switching gears now, it is April, means it's National Poetry Month. To celebrate, we've asked you to tweet us your original poems of 140 characters or less using the hashtag #NPRpoetry. All this month, we're choosing a few to share during the program each weekend. We were able to reach some of you to ask you to record yourselves reading your works and to send it to us. Our first poem is a reflection on love from a 27-year-old pastor, Tommy Welty from San Diego.
TOMMY WELTY: Love is a Rube Goldberg machine, bits and pieces knocked together, pushed down a chute. Pins pop, strike matches and ignite small flames.
MARTIN: You know what? These go by pretty quickly, so let's hear it again.
WELTY: Love is a Rube Goldberg machine, bits and pieces knocked together, pushed down a chute. Pins pop and strike matches and ignite small flames.
MARTIN: Pastor Tommy told us he wrote it while thinking about two particular loved ones and how they made their way into his life.
WELTY: Over the course of two years, I moved across the country. I met my wife, Alyssa. And we got married and we had a son named Atticus. And it all happened so quickly and so wonderfully that it just kind of got me wondering how did I get here?
MARTIN: Well, thank you for that, Pastor Tommy. Thank you for that poem. And thanks to all of the writers who are sending their creations. So please keep tweeting your work with the hashtag NPRpoetry. You might just hear your poem on the air, too, as part of National Poetry Month. We'll be back with more poems later this hour. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.