Clearly, I like Mary Oliver. I can’t help but imagine Mr. Rogers reciting this poem. And that recommends it, I say. I do wake early, but I attribute that to my age rather than any self-discipline. (I haven’t used an alarm to wake me in many years.) This poem, I hope, will be a helpful [ ]
I’m coming in late with June’s poem. This Wordsworth sonnet is appealingly compact, but packs a potent poetic punch. (I actually went to the university library to find this on the shelf. It was like going back in time—walking through the stacks, smelling the old books. I was flummoxed at first that there was no [ ]
Wystan Hugh (W.H.) Auden was a giant of poetry in the twentieth century. He’s described as a genuinely warm, gregarious, and kind person who was funny and unpretentious while being rigorous with his writing schedule and a prolific creator. This poem, my choice for May, certainly has a twinkle of whimsy. It’s clever and fun, [ ]
For April I’m memorizing this little poem by Emily Dickinson, which both describes and demonstrates her approach to poetry and art in general. And maybe her approach to her own enigmatic life—indirect, oblique, original with a beguiling slant. This approach is what the filmmaker Stanley Kubrick explains more explicitly: “If you really want to communicate [ ]
“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.” –Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.16 I woke up one morning a couple of years ago from a dream state that seemed to be channeling the thoughts and voice of the main character from the novel I [ ]
I’ve dithered away much of March with no poem calling to me. I have settled on this Wendell Berry poem, for its brevity and its aptness for times of uncertainty. Though, has there ever been a time of certainty? Of course, change and insecurity are constants. But the ability to rest yourself in the comfort [ ]
I have an Abraham Lincoln problem. I’ve lost track of how many biographies on Lincoln I’ve read—this one more than once. I’ve got a bust of him on the window ledge by my office desk. He’s my automatic answer to the question “Who in history would you want to meet?” I have been in awe [ ]
My poem to memorize for this month is another Mary Oliver selection, one of her most well known, and a good one for the start of the year. It echoes last month s David Whyte poem a bit, with his Everything is waiting for you and her the world offers itself to your imagination . I pondered [ ]
David Whyte is who you would cast to play a poet in a movie. He has a wise sage aura and an amazingly resonant, warm, comforting voice. (Go listen to Rick Rubin’s conversation with him.) And it was listening to multiple David Whyte interviews that inspired me to begin memorizing poetry. Poems flow out of [ ]
I’m memorizing one poem a month. I learned Mary Oliver’s The Journey last month. The first couple of days I worked on it I felt like I was never going to get it. Then I kept at it, and it just clicked. And I found myself saying it out loud to myself as I walked, [ ]