I memorized a poem this week. Although I am a words person and I love the way that true, good poetry goes together, I had actually never memorized a single poem on purpose. (Short little humor pieces and that refrigerator haiku don’t count, I don’t think.)
A colleague of mine mentioned last week that he memorizes a poem every month, and I decided I would join him. I decided on Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night” — because everyone knows *of* it, but I didn’t really *know* it, and I wanted to understand it better. Click here to read the poem and hear the author reading it himself.
Can I just say that this has changed my life? The experience of having a poem under my skin like that, and the moment of reciting it for my colleague… this is BIG, and I love it.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Dan N. // Sep 24, 2010 at 12:07 pm
“Everyone acting like it’s a commercial, acting like life is a big commercial.”
2 Christie // Sep 24, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Make some sense, bro.
3 Christie // Sep 24, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Oh, is that your poem? Good job, then, I guess.
4 Cat // Sep 28, 2010 at 9:58 am
Should I? by Joyce Armor
Would I, could I, should I try to eat a slug, or will I die? Will it slide down sluggishly, or wiggle, squiggle buggishly?
Will it stick and slime my tongue? Or slide down swiftly to my lung?
I think that that would make me dead. I guess I’ll eat a worm instead.
Juliana had to memorize a poem for school today. Guess who got most of it in the process?
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