My mother was a poet.

As a boy, I'd stay up late with her while my father and little brother slept.
She introduced me to poetry.

Ms Washington, at PS 104 in Brooklyn, introduced our class to a lot of poetry. Including some here. Yea, Ms Washington!

Memorized poetry requires no ear-buds to entertain, enlighten, and solace.

These are some of my favorites.

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,

Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs, and blaming it on you,

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

I Knew a Woman
Theodore Roethke

I swear she cast a shadow white as stone.

Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
William Shakespeare

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,

The Captain Stood on the Carronade
Capt. Frederick Maryyat

"Odds, bobs, hammer and tongs, long as I’ve been to sea,

I’ve fought ‘gainst every odds - but I’ve gained the victory!"

The Force that Through the Green Fuse
Dylan Thomas

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower

Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees

Meeting at Night
Robert Browning

And the yellow half-moon large and low;

How they Brought the Good News From Ghent To Aix
Robert Browning

I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;

Casey at The Bat
Ernest Lawrence Thayer

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day;

The Charge of the Heavy Brigade
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Down the hill, down the hill, thousands of Russians,

Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring

the Winter Garment of Repentance fling.

A Dream in the Luxembourg
Richard Aldington

For long months I had not seen her.