Forgetfulness – Billy Collins
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue
or even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
Poetry
- A Dog Has Died by Pablo Neruda
- A Moment of Silence – by Emmanuel Ortiz
- A Quiet Life – Baron Wormser
- A Wreath to the Fish – Nancy Willard
- Alone – Jack Gilbert
- Be Kind, Rewind – Neil Silberblatt
- Black Momma Math – Kimberly Jae
- Crow Blacker Than Ever – Ted Hughes
- Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads – Martha Rivera-Garrido
- Failing and Flying – Jack Gilbert
- Feel Mo – Michael Korson
- Footprints In Your Heart – Eleanor Roosvelt
- Forgetfulness – Billy Collins
- Growing Old – Emma Rosenberg
- I Talked to a Lady – Tanya Howden
- If You Knew – Ellen Bass
- Love is Not All – Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Men – Maya Angelou
- my brain and heart divorced ~ john roedel
- Relax – Ellen Bass
- Tangled Up In Blue – Bob Dylan
- The Four Noble Truths – Jake Onami Agnew
- The History of One Tough Motherfucker – Charles Bukowski
- The Layers – Stanley Kunitz
- The Long Boat – Stanley Kunitz
- The Shyness – Sharon Olds
- Tryst with Death – Gina Puorro
- Wage Peace – Mary Oliver
- War Primer – Bertholt Brecht
- What I Learned From Listening to a Stutterer – Ellen Zorin
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