The enrichment of learning poetry

June McOstrich

I should like to begin by telling you how thoroughly I have enjoyed Poem for the Day. One of the best things which the anthology has done for me is to reintroduce me to poets whose work I scarcely knew, and thus encouraged me to buy more books of poetry! For instance, until I came across 'i thank you God for most this amazing day', I had no idea how spiritual E.E. Cummings' verse was, or how radical in its thinking. Of course I have loved Poem for the Day for lots of other reasons too, not least for the thinking behind it, the encouragement to learn poetry by heart.

Actually, I had already started. It was my New Year resolution in 1993. I vowed I'd try and learn a poem a week to stimulate my ageing brain. What a marvellous road I set forth on. The actual learning is challenging, maddening, fun and greatly satisfying. Then, I love choosing the next poem, the slow deliberation before deciding - the initial engagement with the poem when I am quite sure I will never, ever learn it, and then suddenly - it's in my head. This has given me the opportunity to discover and observe my own learning processes, my own particular way of creating memory tags. I am most intrigued by this.

I did learn poetry at school but it was never the adventure that this one is. I am so much more aware now of the skills of poets. I recognise that if I get one word wrong, or, in error reconstruct a phrase, how much that matters. I recognise the care the writer has taken to hone down the language and balance the lines.

Also, because of poetry, I look anew at the common place and the everyday. Dick Davis informs my 6am world and since reading Thom Gunn's poem 'Considering the Snail' snails have turned into the mysterious creatures which he describes.

Inside my head is rich, and the poetry helps me to make an infinite number of new connections in my daily living, in my discourse with others and to the natural environment.

Well, what I am writing to you is that I am an enthusiastic devotee of poetry learning. I have also taken it a step further in that I make my own poetry books - I'm on my second. I buy blank, handmade books, photocopy the poem I am learning, and when once learned, and only then, I allow myself to stick the poem into my book, and, like a child, decorate it as I will. I carry these books everywhere with me.

I am writing to you as I journey to Ireland on the Holyhead-Dun Laoghaire crossing - both books are with me!

I should love to come to the Poetry Marathon in London on October 8th '95. Do please book me a place. I feel glad to support an enterprise which raises consciousness about the far reaching consequences that learning poetry holds for us human beings.

- June McOstrich, Forge House, Kemble, Gloucestershire GL7 6AD.
- The Poetry Marathon is at St Marks Hall, Abercorn Place, London NW8 9XP from 2pm to 7pm on Sunday October 8th 1995. Book places in advance from 0181 208 2853 - you need a copy of Poem for the Day to gain entrance. The idea is to get sponsorship from friends and relatives to recite poems by heart, with the money going to the charity of your choice.