26 poems in 2026: my personal goal

Описание: in 2026 I've set a personal goal to memorize 26 poems. That's one poem every other week!

John Adams famously said that "you will never be alone if you keep a poet in your pocket."

I started memorizing poems a few years ago and have found Adams' words to be true. Having the ideas of a great thinker and artist stored away in my mind has provided companionship and entertainment in moments of boredom which might have been spent in less worthy ways (like scrolling).

The first poem of the year is The Most of It by Robert Frost:

He thought he kept the universe alone;
For all the voice in answer he could wake
Was but the mocking echo of his own
From some tree-hidden cliff across the lake.
Some morning from the boulder-broken beach
He would cry out on life, that what it wants
Is not its own love back in copy speech,
But counter-love, original response.
And nothing ever came of what he cried
Unless it was the embodiment that crashed
In the cliff’s talus on the other side,
And then in the far distant water splashed,
But after a time allowed for it to swim,
Instead of proving human when it neared
And someone else additional to him,
As a great buck it powerfully appeared,
Pushing the crumpled water up ahead,
And landed pouring like a waterfall,
And stumbled through the rocks with horny tread,
And forced the underbrush—and that was all.


I hope this poem brings some joy into your day!