The meaning of poetry is to give courage. A poem is not a puzzle that you the dutiful reader are obliged to solve. It is meant to poke you, get you to buck up, pay attention, rise and shine, look alive, get a grip, get the picture, pull up your socks, wake up and die right. … But what really matters about poetry and what distinguishes poets from say, fashion models or ad salesmen, is the miracle of incantation in rendering the gravity and grace and beauty of the ordinary world and thereby lending courage to strangers. This is a necessary thing.

(from Garrison Keillor’s introduction to “Good Poems for Hard Times,” which is an entirely wonderful collection of poems that you should own.)

I thought that perhaps April was National Poetry Month because it’s the cruelest month and thereby the month in which our souls need the most bolstering. But I was wrong about that. According to Poets.org, the poetry powers that be chose April because it was the month when “poetry could be celebrated with the highest level of participation. … April seemed the best time within the year to turn attention toward the art of poetry — in an ultimate effort to encourage poetry readership year-round.”

I took a class in poetry writing in college, and every single poem I wrote was awful. Unreservedly awful. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson then, but I woke up in the wee hours last night and a poem was trying to write itself in my head. I didn’t wake up enough to write it down, but I can say with absolute certainty that it would also have been awful. (It was a conversation, and the last line was “And I said.” Best that I didn’t try to record it, I think.) Anyway, I’m glad that the world has people in it who are good and even great at writing poetry.

It is entirely possible that I was supposed to memorize a poem at some point in my academic history. I don’t remember such an event, though. I’m not sure if that’s because we weren’t required to do it or maybe I just didn’t comply. But I think memorization is good exercise for the brain, and I wanted the children to have a collection of great poetry on hand at a moment’s notice. So memorization and recitation have been and will be a big part of their educations.

We go over the poem Poppy is currently working to learn every day, and we review a few of the previously memorized poems each day, too. I use the Charlotte Mason memory system for keeping the poems organized. All you need is an index card box, some labels and a bunch of index cards (and also a pen). It takes a little time to set it up initially, but it’s very easy to use after that. So long as no small boys upend the box, thus requiring you to put it all back in order again. Simply Charlotte Mason has a very nice tutorial on setting the system up. The Poetry Foundation is my favorite online source for poetry. They have a wonderful search feature that allows you to narrow your search by subject, occasions or region, among other things. You can also filter any search by “poems that are good for children,” which is ridiculously helpful.

So what sort of poems is a 5-year-old capable of memorizing? Just about any of them, I think. Poppy’s memorized a few this year that I wasn’t sure she’d be able to do because of length or lack of regular rhythm or rhyme, but she surprised me every time. Some of them have taken a few weeks, but she’s memorized every poem that I’ve given her. She has 7 weeks of kindergarten left, and I’ll probably have her memorize at least 4 or 5 more poems by the end of the year. But here’s what she’s memorized thus far: Continue reading “The miracle of incantation” (or: Why I’m making the kids memorize poems) →