On June 29th, 2024, I turn 50. As part of my celebration of this milestone, I’ve memorized 50 poems:
- Auto-lullaby/ Franz Wright
- Tell all the truth but tell it slant/ Emily Dickinson
- And Swept All Visible Signs Away/ Carl Phillips
- LOVESONG OF THE SQUARE ROOT OF NEGATIVE ONE/ Richard Siken
- It’s all I have to bring today/ Emily Dickinson
- Dear One Absent This Long While/ Lisa Olstein
- Ode to My Right Knee/ Rita Dove
- The Trees/ Phillip Larkin
- Instructions on Not Giving Up/ Ada Limón
- What Would Root/ Katie Farris
- Threshold/ Maggie Smith
- Voiceover/ Rita Dove
- I dwell in Possibility – (466)/ EMILY DICKINSON
- I Remember/ Anne Sexton
- Doors/ Carl Sandburg
- Praying/ Mary Oliver
- Invitation/ Mary Oliver
- Crows/ Marilyn Nelson
- Wild Geese/ Mary Oliver
- Turkey Vultures/ Ted Kooser
- Before I got my eye put out/ Emily Dickinson
- The Meadow/ Marie Howe
- Natural Forces/ Vicente Huidobro
- I Look Up from My Book and Out at the World through Reading Glasses/ Diane Seuss
- Writing a Poem/ Shirley Geok-lim Lin
- We grow accustomed to the Dark — / Emily Dickinson
- Spring and Fall /Gerard Manly Hopkins
- Nobody /Emily Dickinson
- Vertical/ Linda Pastan
- What Big Eyes You Have/ Heather Christle
- I measure every Grief I meet/ Emily Dickinson
- The Crazy Woman/ Gwendolyn Brooks
- Listen/ Didi Jackson
- A Murmur in the Trees – to note – / Emily Dickinson (F433 — 1862)
- “Hope” is the thing with feathers – (314)/ Emily Dickinson
- I felt a Cleaving in my Mind—/ Emily Dickinson
- Mushrooms/ Sylvia Plath (read by Plath)
- A lane of Yellow led the eye (1650)
- The Social Life of Water/ Tony Hoaglund
- A Short Story of Falling/ ALICE OSWALD
- Summer Studies/ Tony Hoagland
- Swimming, One Day in August/ Mary Oliver
- Halos/ Ed Bok Lee
- Out, Out– /Robert Frost
- Luke /Mary Oliver
- Can You Imagine? /Mary Oliver
- Who Has Seen the Wind/ Christina Rossetti
- I heard a Fly buzz — when I died/ Emily Dickinson
- I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, (340) / Emily Dickinson
- Still Life with Window and Fish / Jorie Graham (recording + full text in my 4 may 2022 entry)