Last month, as COVID-19 hit, I decided to recite a poem to make myself feel better. So far, I’ve memorized 4 poems. Sometimes I recite them when I’m trying to fall asleep or when I’m washing my hands. I especially like to recite them while I’m running near the gorge. I like to listen for how I can sync up their rhythms with my striking feet. It’s a great way to spend some time with a poem and to pass the time when the running gets harder.
I am tagging my log entries in which I discuss the process of reciting the poems with the tag: reciting while running
- 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
- Perhaps You Tire of Birds/ Donika Kelly
- Before I got my eye put out/ Emily Dickinson
- Memorizing “The Sun Rising” by John Donne/ BILLY COLLINS
- The Meadow/ Marie Howe
- The Gate/ Marie Howe
- Natural Forces/ Vicente Huidobro
- I Look Up from My Book and Out at the World through Reading Glasses/ Diane Seuss
- Halos/ Ed Bok Lee
- Push the Button, Hear the Sound/ Helen Mort
- Babel/ Kimberly Johnson
- Writing a Poem/ Shirley Geok-lim Lin