memorize more poetry

I want to memorize more psalms.. starting with number 139 :)
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I have a lousy memory but the paradox is that i write creative poetry, i need to narrow that gap

I’ve memorized “when I die” by Neruda. Love that poem.

so I think I’ve done pretty well on this goal. I’m going to keep doing this though because I enjoy it so much.

and the first 19 lines of The Lady of Shallot by heart. They’re such great poems.

The poems I’ve got memorized are In Flander’s Fields, A Question, and the intro to The Cremation of Sam McGee. Right now I’m memorizing The Road Not Taken and I want to memorize at least half of The Lady of Shallot.

I’ve always admired people who can casually weave verse into conversations. Actually, I can memorize the poems—I just can’t seem to use them when they would seem most appropriate. So a better title for this goal would be “Use Poetry More Effectively without Sounding Affected”.

i started reciting poetry to my kids when they were babies before they’d go to bed at night. i figured it was liek reading to them, but i could do it in the rocking chair with the lights out and help lull them to sleep. i’ve got some dickenson, frost, blake and wordsworth memorized, along with a bunch of shakespeare, and now that my kids are bigger, we read from poetry books together, but i think it’s good brain exercise to be able to recite from memory, too. (and no, i didn’t recite macbeth to my sleeping babes…)

when i was a freshman in high school, we had a guy come into my class and recite ‘rime of the ancient mariner’ from memory. the guy was as old as dirt, and i imagine that exercising the brain like that helps. i think my english teacher knew him from a bar, but we’ll just let that slide..