Celebrating the positive power of poetry

Three years ago, a cousin of my age, 70, mentioned ginkgo biloba as a good way to keep the memory cells alive. When I looked in the stores and saw the cost, I searched for another approach and decided memorizing a line or two of poetry each morning was a lot cheaper and maybe would accomplish the same thing. I’ve been doing it ever since too, but not at the same rate as Lynne Heffley for getting a firm hold on a poem (“Fighting Time in Rhyme,” March 23).

A couple of weeks ago I did a program called “Poetry of Our Time” for my temple senior group’s monthly meeting. I did three poems from memory and two matched your early choices -- “The Road Not Taken” and “Daffodils,” which Heffley and others remember by its first line.

This morning I was working on recapturing the first eight lines of [Gerard Manley] Hopkins’ sonnet “As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame” that I learned two years ago and definitely needed work to recall. There are two lines in there with a total of 20 words, one word per syllable. Get your mouth around that one.

I’m not sure I’m remembering names, titles or anything else in the daily round better than before. But I do have faith I’m maintaining a fairly high degree of mental alertness with this habit. And as I keep saying to myself, how good it is to have a stock of fine poetry at hand.

Donald Roy Salper

Northridge

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Yesterday, I had the privilege of reading a poem at an assembly at the school my kids attend. It was the first poem I had memorized since junior high school (I’m 38). The poem is called “Poetry” by Haki Madhubuti.

I was a bit nervous and I did have to look at my “cheat sheet” once but I worked very hard at making eye contact with the students and using inflections and emotions at what I certainly hope were the right times.

It was a wonderful experience. I have an original poem I wrote that I am currently memorizing. Yesterday’s experience gave me confidence to try sharing it at a local poetry slam next month.

By the way, April is National Poetry Month so I think my timing is right.

Bryan Bowen

Pasadena