Two excellent additions! “Let evening come”sounds just the right note of courage for Floridians with tonight to get through. That last stanza- mmm. Perfect.
1000 thanks for putting together this incredible list of poems which I’ll dip into always when I need a poetry fix. Such a great collection of poetical history. So much to be inspired by and learn from. Hats off to you!
Thank you! I see that I missed a few days of replies, but I'm delighted with this assortment of poems, too, and glad to share the inspiration around. Recitation day is this Friday. Do you think you'll share a poem?
Hi Tara, unfortunately I don’t have the time to do this as I’ve got too many things going on. I wish I could participate but perhaps maybe another time.
Thank you so much for this Tara! The Universe has been putting this notion in front of me for the past few weeks, and I'm so happy to see this gathering of like spirits!
Lovely that our minds were on the same wave-length, Linda. The day for sharing remembered poems is coming up this Friday. Do you think you'll join in the fun?
This is great! I have 10/25 marked on my calendar:). FYI I had to memorize “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson in 8th grade. I still remember it, but I don’t really want to!
Tips for participants show up at the end of my Poems to Carry in the Blood post (up above these comments). The basics are these:
1. Make a video or audio post featuring yourself reciting from memory or reading aloud a poem you are glad to have in your blood.
2. Publish it in your Substack newsletter on October 25th in any time zone.
3. Tag me (@TaraPenry) and mention this project so that I will see your post.
There are tips to aid readers with more details and to unify the project visually, but those are the essentials.
I'll collate all the participants as links in a post to my subscribers a week later. (I'm never terribly vigilant about holding a stopwatch to the time of posts. If it takes a couple of days to pull it together, post and tag me anyhow. I'll still be putting the collection together and will see that yours gets in.) Any poem will do. I hope you have a chance to join in tomorrow-ish. 🎵 🖋️
Thank you, Rosa! So glad you enjoyed the crowd-sourced collection of poems. Are you thinking of posting one this Friday? It's hard to believe the Day of Sharing is almost here.
How is the poetry recording coming? I can't wait to hear what you decide to share on Friday. (Audio is ok for those who don't want to be "sighted" on video.) .... Counting down ....
I’m confident that you will give the lines just the right Switter-voice. It won’t be Connery, Millay, or Frost, but it will have all the intonations that Switter fans will go mad for. Swittermania they’ll call it on the Today show.
What a compilation, Tara! I love that you included all of them and took the time to categorize them, too. I love the idea of a group recital and if I don't jump in as a participant, I will enjoy what others share. Thank you for inspiring us!
What an elemental poem! Humans and angels: I like the way the scale tips back and forth in the poem. I look forward to your reading. I feel that will be a treat. 🥰
I love this. I don't know if I will record anything because I don't tend to remember to do things (and also, I'm very shy), but this gave me happy memories of senior year of high school, when our teacher had us memorize the first stanza/18 lines of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales. I can still recite them thirty years later, and it makes me happy to have those pretty words in my brain 💛.
There’s another classic that’s missing from the list. I like Chaucer’s April showers much better than T.S. Eliot’s cruelest month. Thank you for bringing back my memory, too.
Good to have you along, whether or not you feel moved to record some pretty words. :-)
You got me writing a poem about all the things I’ve memorized (some of them without meaning to, just by reading them over and over and over again). I forgot how deep and gorgeous memorization can be. Thank you for sharing this project with all of us!
Well, how could I not participate in so grand a scheme of poetic love? I am a reader, so I will offer a poem to the collection, "Of Mere Being," by Wallace Stevens, the final poem in The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play (Alfred A. Knopf, 1971).
Good to have you on board, Jay! I'm so excited to have this little opening where lovers of poetry can just bring these words we carry, and everyone understands what it means to carry them. My phrase of the week is now "fire-fangled feathers" - thank you very much!
In a state of poet kismet… I was going to mention PORTIA’S SPEECH!!!! Actually both Shylock and Portia are memorable. Love Meechant if Venice. I have both monologues memorized.
I should mention that when I’m feeling emo and adolescent, I sometimes recall the first eight lines of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Alone.” Ed’s the only one who understands my tortured soul, you know?
Just recorded and scheduled mine - thanks for the idea and the opportunity to share, Tara!
Hooray! Looking forward to hearing your poem. :-)
And This is it #2
This is it
This is really it
This is all there is
And it’s perfect as it is
There is nowhere to go
but Here
There is nothing here
but Now
There is nothing now
but this
And this it
This is really it
This is all there is
And it’s perfect as it is
I'd like to offer This is it by James Broughton:
This is It
and I am It
and You are It
and so is That
and He is It
and She is It
and It is It
and That is That
Oh It is This
and It is Thus
and It is Them
and It is Us
and It is Now
and here It is
and here We are
so This is It
It starts out sounding like a game of tag and ends with existential philosophy. Amazing what so few words can do!
The second one, #2, he recited on his death bed, glass of champagne in hand, and surrounded by friends.
Wow.
If it's not too late to add poems to your list, here are two more: "Spring and Fall" by Hopkins (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44400/spring-and-fall) and "Let Evening Come" by Jane Kenyon (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46431/let-evening-come). Both feel fitting for the season we're living through.
Two excellent additions! “Let evening come”sounds just the right note of courage for Floridians with tonight to get through. That last stanza- mmm. Perfect.
Yes 💙
You're so amazing at these challenges, Tara. I have to dig deep here and give this some thought. Your compilation is rich!
The day is getting closer .... ;-) A little poem of four lines counts just as well as a long ode. Join in if the spirit moves.
1000 thanks for putting together this incredible list of poems which I’ll dip into always when I need a poetry fix. Such a great collection of poetical history. So much to be inspired by and learn from. Hats off to you!
Thank you! I see that I missed a few days of replies, but I'm delighted with this assortment of poems, too, and glad to share the inspiration around. Recitation day is this Friday. Do you think you'll share a poem?
Hi Tara, unfortunately I don’t have the time to do this as I’ve got too many things going on. I wish I could participate but perhaps maybe another time.
Godspeed with the projects, and thank you for encouraging this one. :-)
Thank you so much for this Tara! The Universe has been putting this notion in front of me for the past few weeks, and I'm so happy to see this gathering of like spirits!
Lovely that our minds were on the same wave-length, Linda. The day for sharing remembered poems is coming up this Friday. Do you think you'll join in the fun?
This is great! I have 10/25 marked on my calendar:). FYI I had to memorize “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson in 8th grade. I still remember it, but I don’t really want to!
That is unfortunately a very indelible poem. Will you share it this Friday, or choose something else? Don't answer. I'll wait for the surprise. ;-)
Edwin Cory - me too!
It must have been a "thing." Glad you can relate!
So good!!!!
Ooo I’d love to. Can you remind me what it’s about?
Tips for participants show up at the end of my Poems to Carry in the Blood post (up above these comments). The basics are these:
1. Make a video or audio post featuring yourself reciting from memory or reading aloud a poem you are glad to have in your blood.
2. Publish it in your Substack newsletter on October 25th in any time zone.
3. Tag me (@TaraPenry) and mention this project so that I will see your post.
There are tips to aid readers with more details and to unify the project visually, but those are the essentials.
I'll collate all the participants as links in a post to my subscribers a week later. (I'm never terribly vigilant about holding a stopwatch to the time of posts. If it takes a couple of days to pull it together, post and tag me anyhow. I'll still be putting the collection together and will see that yours gets in.) Any poem will do. I hope you have a chance to join in tomorrow-ish. 🎵 🖋️
Thank you, Rosa! So glad you enjoyed the crowd-sourced collection of poems. Are you thinking of posting one this Friday? It's hard to believe the Day of Sharing is almost here.
Here’s a couple of poems I didn’t see listed that flow in my veins:
The Peace of Wild Things
- Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Performed by Stellenbosch University Choir
https://youtu.be/j4w_TcJK7X0?si=XIHOn5gC9O8baI9E
Ithaca
- C.P. Covafy
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
Read by Sean Connery and music by Vangelis:
https://youtu.be/1n3n2Ox4Yfk?si=YxoZQIr6T40WXlb8
How is the poetry recording coming? I can't wait to hear what you decide to share on Friday. (Audio is ok for those who don't want to be "sighted" on video.) .... Counting down ....
Okay, but voice only and I’m no Sean Connery.
You are a persistent one.
Persistent, pesky, … whatever. 😇
In a good way. Can I do monotone? Robert Frost did monotone.
I’m confident that you will give the lines just the right Switter-voice. It won’t be Connery, Millay, or Frost, but it will have all the intonations that Switter fans will go mad for. Swittermania they’ll call it on the Today show.
Renascence, right?
Oh yes, the whole darned thing! Twice! 😆 Or just a stanza. Any part that sticks with you.
You are definitely an accommodating person, and I respect that.
What a compilation, Tara! I love that you included all of them and took the time to categorize them, too. I love the idea of a group recital and if I don't jump in as a participant, I will enjoy what others share. Thank you for inspiring us!
I love the way these community activities just evolve on their own. I'm happy to throw the doors open and follow where they lead. My pleasure. :-)
Free verse: "The Privilege of Being" by Robert Hass https://poets.org/poem/privilege-being-audio-only
I'm also in for October 25th ...
What an elemental poem! Humans and angels: I like the way the scale tips back and forth in the poem. I look forward to your reading. I feel that will be a treat. 🥰
I won't read this one though--as Hass does grand work reading his own pm that I treasure and have quoted a portion, with his permission, in my memoir.
I love this. I don't know if I will record anything because I don't tend to remember to do things (and also, I'm very shy), but this gave me happy memories of senior year of high school, when our teacher had us memorize the first stanza/18 lines of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales. I can still recite them thirty years later, and it makes me happy to have those pretty words in my brain 💛.
There’s another classic that’s missing from the list. I like Chaucer’s April showers much better than T.S. Eliot’s cruelest month. Thank you for bringing back my memory, too.
Good to have you along, whether or not you feel moved to record some pretty words. :-)
You got me writing a poem about all the things I’ve memorized (some of them without meaning to, just by reading them over and over and over again). I forgot how deep and gorgeous memorization can be. Thank you for sharing this project with all of us!
Hooray! I'm delighted to hear this has taken you to your notebook.
Well, how could I not participate in so grand a scheme of poetic love? I am a reader, so I will offer a poem to the collection, "Of Mere Being," by Wallace Stevens, the final poem in The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play (Alfred A. Knopf, 1971).
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57671/of-mere-being
However, I am also a poet, so I will record myself (video or audio, we'll see) reading my own poem, "A Stone in Water," from Waiting for Word.
What a day, weekend, and week it will be!
Good to have you on board, Jay! I'm so excited to have this little opening where lovers of poetry can just bring these words we carry, and everyone understands what it means to carry them. My phrase of the week is now "fire-fangled feathers" - thank you very much!
In a state of poet kismet… I was going to mention PORTIA’S SPEECH!!!! Actually both Shylock and Portia are memorable. Love Meechant if Venice. I have both monologues memorized.
Emoji needed: minds on same wavelength! 🧠 + 🌊 =👌
* Merchant of Venice, obviously. 🤣
I should mention that when I’m feeling emo and adolescent, I sometimes recall the first eight lines of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Alone.” Ed’s the only one who understands my tortured soul, you know?
Stephen! You may be on to something. The Emo Anthology could be just the thing to get Gens Z and Alpha reading (books) again. A raven on the cover?
A hand sticking up from the water! Because what angsty teen can’t identify with this?https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46479/not-waving-but-drowning
Exactly! ❤️