April is Poetry Month

 When I lived and worked in New Jersey, one of the (few) things I loved about April was celebrating poetry. 

    Put a Poem in Your Pocket

    a Poetry Assembly

    Reading all the fun, funny, poignant poems shared here and there. 

That and a few forced forsythias kept me smiling through what was often dreary weather.

Fast forward a few years and we've found ourselves back on the East Coast in a more southerly spot, Washington DC.

Where the weather is more agreeable and the flowers are earlier. So April is fast becoming a favorite month. And there's still POETRY to be shared. Now I'm sharing it with one of my dearest friends.

The idea came when Judith Viorst addressed a group I was part of. At the end, a questioner asked her how she kept so sharp. Sudoku? Crossword puzzles? 

Nope, she memorizes poetry!

I was all over that. So now my friend Beverly and I memorize a FEW VERSES AT A TIME of a favorite poem. We both agree that this was something we did in Mrs. Glassco's senior English class, from Robert Burns to William Wordsworth, and a lot in between (not so much after, however). 

Her first poem contained many stanzas. Christopher Marlowe! She learned them all!       (But I have too much fluff in my brain! Like how to drive to the nearest CVS, or the library, or Beverly's house! Driving directions, among many other new things, are clogging my brain.)

So mine was a more modest attempt, Mary Oliver.

 

My new choice is a short, wonderfully metered Emily Dickinson verse.   

(Note to self. Easier to memorize poems that rhyme.)

Oh, and I didn't find this week's selection, "Hope is the thing with feathers" this way but I loved reading this, about her poetry just now in Publisher's Weekly.

It's been a long time and not-so-many words since I last blogged. But I want to keep up with these poems so I'm going to attempt to track them here. Stay with me if you'd like and tell me your favorite poem. 

Have you memorized anything lately? 

Do kids even do this in school?