|
Tipsheet
5: Creating a Memory Circle
In
the spring of 1999, Poets House instituted a monthly Memory
Circle at its SoHo loft space. Led by the poet Carol Conroy,
the Memory Circle celebrates the art and joy of memorization.
The monthly meetings are an opportunity for people to gather and
share the poems they love. People recite the poems that they have
memorized during the course of the month and say a few words about
their relationships to those poems—why they chose to memorize
them, perhaps how the poems work on a technical level. Our only
requirement is that the poems recited cannot be written by the
person reciting. The Memory Circle encourages people to celebrate
other people's poems, to go back to the masterworks (masterwords)
that continue to speak to us.
Poetry
on the page is fairly new—since the printing press and high
rates of literacy. In many cultures, recitation of poetry is part
of religious incantation and the transmission of history. But
even in our own culture, until recently, the poems of Tennyson
and Shakespeare were often shared outloud from memory. Recitation
was part of a family and community tradition, as commonplace as
singing songs. It was a group entertainment and thrived in music
halls, churches and family parlors.
The
poet Patricia Spears Jones has written, "I grew up in a community
where children had to learn and publicly recite their piece at
the Easter or Christmas pageants or Negro History week celebrations.
The poems were short, strictly metered and rhymed...I am convinced
that my love of the American popular song form and of its greatest
lyricists results from these childhood exercises." The idea
of the Memory Circle is to revive recitation of poetry as a form
of fun and as a community event in which we share words that have
meaning to us. Often, as an additional perk, participants discover
literary forms new to them.
The
people who return over and over again to the Poets House Memorization
Circle feel they are giving themselves a new treasure each month.
Many feel they own the poem they have memorized. To start,
if you are unsure of the interest in your community, reach out
to a local high school and get a class of "memorizers"
to host your event (at least their friends and family will come,
and the circle may grow from there).
Here are some basic tips:
-The
Memory Circle should be between 1 and 1 1/2 hours long.
-Get
a facilitator to host the Circle, or try it yourself. Having one
facilitator at each session helps to build confidence, trust and
dialogue. At the first session, have the facilitator talk about
why we memorize poems and how it can be meaningful to have poems
available to us in our minds.
-Facilitators may also want to share tips about converting short-term
memories into long-term memories (repetition after 2 minutes,
5 minutes, 20 minutes, 2 hours).
-The Facilitator should always memorize a new poem and recite
it as they introduce the new session. It may require two recitations
for people in the circle to "hear" a new poem.
-Go around in a circle. Have each person recite his or her poem.
Afterwards you may want to ask why they memorized the poem, what
they liked, what they think about it now.
-Create an atmosphere of patience. Memorization is not a contest,
but a context in which to give to ourselves. If people struggle
with what they have memorized, let them read the poem aloud and
try again.
-Be prepared to encourage those who want to recite a poem of their
own to return next time having memorized a poem by a different
poet.
-Make
sure you have done your work: publicize. Try to make connections
with local teachers who will encourage their classes to attend
for the fun of it (or for extra credit). Memorization and recitation
are familiar to many older people. Reach out to the retirement
communities in your area. Make sure everyone signs in so that
you have a complete set of addresses and phone numbers.
-Ask
everyone to bring a copy of the poem(s) they plan to recite. This
will allow you to make copies and give participants a packet of
all the poems recited by the group as a keepsake.
|
