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What: #35 Memorize a poem/sonnet
Where: Oakwood Cemetery
When: July 31
Why: When I was in high school, I had to memorize the famous soliloquy from Romeo & Juliet for my honors English class and I remember working at it over and over, and then my nerves caused me to stumble when I went to recite it to the class, and that one glitch threw me off so much that I lost the whole thing.

From my trip to Verona

After that, I realized there are ways to better memorize a chunk of information, but in terms of memorizing words only, that was always hard for me. I'm a master at memorizing words to music; give me almost any song and I can memorize the lyrics within 3-4 replays of the whole song. And the same goes for my skills at memorizing movements to sound; this was mostly only useful when I was taking dance lessons or in marching band, but I loved the ability to associate each step with a count or a beat or a piece of the music. But aside from a funny or motivational quote here or there, I hadn't given memorizing only words a try in quite some time. So, I wanted to expand my brain power and give it a shot. I hadn't really set aside time to do this until Tuesday. I was trying to fill about an hour of time on my drive up north, and had taken a detour to Fenton where my grandparents are buried to pay my respects. Upon arriving, I received a phone call from someone who is great about encouraging me to keep going on my list, and it was suggested that I could use this time to knock off another item, and this is the one that was suggested. I had a certain sonnet in my head from the poet Pablo Neruda, who earned the Nobel Prize for Literature shortly before his death at age 69. I really connected with this particular sonnet - Sonnet XVII - upon reading it a few months ago, especially the elements of the phrasing and the imagery it conveys. It is translated from Spanish, from the collection Cien sonetos de amor (1959), so that made it a bit tricky to memorize because there are many variations on the translation into English. I chose my favorite translation, and decided to look it up on my phone to spend the next hour reciting line by line, over and over, repeating each phrase, then adding another, then putting it together before adding the next verse. So there I am, sitting on my grandmother's headstone, talking to myself in the middle of the morning...I'm certain I looked like I was having an in-depth chat with her spirit, but I'm happy that she is a part of this memory. And, even days later, I can still recite it, so hopefully it's stuck in my mind for a long time.