Off by heart
Or: cleanminded
Dear friends,
I’ve been back in the studio this week, recording the next season (the 10th!) of Poetry Unbound. All things going according to plan, it’ll be released later this year. It’s lovely to be back in the gorgeous Digital Island studios in NYC, where the choices of tea are as delicious as the people who work there.
My process of choosing poems for a season is neither scientific nor strategic. I read a lot and keep long lists, and then try to do the terrible task of choosing poems from among that list that’ll be good companions in a season together. It’s a rare book I read where a poem from it wouldn’t be a thrill to cover, and it’s a rare book I read where I choose a poem — usually about 1 book in 10 gets coverage. And that’s not because only 1 book in 10 has a good poem, not at all. It’s more because I’m looking for a particular type of poem that suits the Poetry Unbound podcast project. I look forward to sharing this next season with you when it comes out; included in it is that hard-to-find poem by Stewart Henderson that I mentioned in last week’s Substack.
When I was a teenager, I was embarrassed that I wrote poetry. I carried it around in my school backpack, hidden in a folder I didn’t want anyone else to see. It’s entirely possible that I was unsuccessful in hiding my enthusiasm for poems, though — these days I tend to think that many of us are nowhere near as subtle as we think. We had a lot of poems to learn off-by-heart for school, and often I’d recite them on the way to or from school or put them to a melody on the guitart to make them more easily put to memory.
I’ve begun going back to poems that I once had memorised — or, to say it in Irish, “rud a chur de ghlanmheabhair” (putting something cleanmindedly). Approaching 50, I’ve found it interesting to revisit lines that have been kicking around my memory since the age of 15 or younger.
Currently I’m relearning Patrick Kavanagh’s Having Confessed. I’ve put printouts of it around the apartment and try to add a few lines to memory each time I brew tea or brush my teeth. My process is this: learn a few lines, and then learn a few more and recite it, noticing where I stumble … and then try to come up with something to help me across the stumble.
It might be that the second sentence of the poem begins with a “B” which helps me know the commencing sound. Or sometimes I learn the last part first. Whatever works. Pretty soon, my reciting goes somewhere other than conscious, and the poem embeds itself. Then the poem happens in me.
The question for this week is: Is there a poem you want to learn by heart? Why? Did you know it before, or do you need it now? What works for you in memorisation? (The techniques are as unique as you are — whatever works works.)
I could go into the reasons why memorising a poem is good. But beautiful things don’t need reasons. You don’t have to memorise — there are plenty of reasons not to. But I know that enough of us struggle to sleep or to sleep through a full night to know that it can be a pleasant way to pass a wakened witching hour.
I look forward to hearing the poems you wish to have cleanminded in you — and to stealing your memorisation techniques. (I believe good / poets borrow, great poets steal … a line from Meg Kearney’s “Creed”, which she stole magnificently from something T.S. Eliot wrote, which he stole from someone who wrote critically about him.)
Poetry in the World
A list of my events: Online and in the US (Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Rhinebeck, NY; Swarthmore, PA; Atlanta, GA; Cleveland, OH; Portland, OR; North Kingstown, RI; Chicago, IL; Stockbridge, MA; Notre Dame, IN) and the UK (Iona, Scotland)
September 14, Online
My good friend Marie Howe and I will be discussing poetry and prayer through the Fine Arts Work Center at 4 p.m. ET. There’s tiered pricing to attend this online event; you can reserve your spot here.
September 15, Manhattan, New York
Emily Kasriel and I will be leading an in-person interactive workshop on Deep Listening. The event is free, but you must register in advance here.
September 21, Brooklyn, New York
Come find me at the Brooklyn Book Festival in Brooklyn Heights, where I’ll be doing an event. Event information will be posted here.
September 26–28, Rhinebeck, New York, and Online
I am leading a weekend retreat exploring “Strange Stories of the Bible” at Omega Institute. Expect strangeness, swearing, f**ked up stories of families, and literary brilliance. You can join in person or online.
October 10, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
I’ll be discussing “Poetry and Openness” with Megan McFayden-Mungall, Isadora Caldas, and Vivian Ojo at the 2025 Annual Conference of the Peace and Justice Studies Association at Swarthmore College. You can purchase tickets for the conference here.
October 15, Manhattan, New York
Join me for a lecture alongside Episcopal Bishop Marianne Budde at St. Thomas Church. You can register for this free event here.
October 18, Atlanta, Georgia
I’m leading a retreat day called “Poetry, Prayer, and Place” at The Cathedral of St. Philip. Learn more about the retreat and register here. Tickets at reduced rates are available.
November 6, Cleveland, Ohio
I’ll be visiting Case Western Reserve University to have a conversation with Michele Tracy Berger. Registration details can be found here.
November 8, Portland, Oregon
Come say hello to me at the Portland Book Festival. For pass information and the complete author lineup, check out the festival’s website.
November 14, North Kingstown, Rhode Island
Together with Sophie Cabot Black, I’ll be reading as part of Spencer Reece’s “14 Gold Street Series” Turn up — it’s free, it’s at 5:30 P.M. ET, and the location is here.
December 5–7, Manhattan, New York
I’m thrilled to be part of the Irish Poetry Festival at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan; I’ll be doing two events: one paid and one free. Tickets and full details here.
December 11, Chicago, Illinois
I’m honored to be reading alongside E. Ethelbert Miller at the 27th Annual Peace Concert. Learn more about the free event and get a ticket here.
December 19–21, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
I’m leading a retreat called “Poetry of Peace” at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. More details and registration here.
April 23, Notre Dame, Indiana
I’ll be giving the keynote for a symposium at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Event details here.
June 27–July 3, 2026, Iona, Scotland
Krista and I will be leading a week of conversation (with some musical guests) on Iona, an island off an island off the west coast of Scotland. The Saint Columba hotel will be releasing information about it soon; sign up to that list here.
The best way I've found to memorize poems is by performing them for my dog in the evenings on the couch, or in the car when we drive somewhere. Line by line, I speak and he listens . . . or sleeps. When I'm trying to commit a poem to memory it helps me to have an audience and he's a generous one! So far his favorite poem has been Wendell Berry's "What We Need Is Here." https://www.awakin.org/v2/read/view.php?tid=2144
I would like to memorize somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond by E. E. Cummings. I don’t even remember the first time I read this poem—certainly not at school, since such works are rarely taught in local classrooms in Turkey. Unless you’re lucky enough to study literature at a good university, the world of great writing often remains out of reach. That wasn’t the case for me; I had to follow a path that would allow me to work and make a living. It’s a little sad, but that’s the reality. Over the years, it has been my own curiosity and passion that have guided me deeper into the world of literature.
Now, I’m thinking of framing this poem and hanging it in my room, so I can see it every day, savor each line, and hopefully commit it to memory, if my mind allows.
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands