My Symphony: A memory

William Henry Channing

It’s the beginning of the month, which means it’s time for a new Memory, the side of Poetry & Process where we come together to memorize poetry. We conduct this practice to engrain words of meaning into our minds, bodies, and beings that will serve as a companion during our unique walks. While each life is unique, the situations we encounter and the emotions we face have been felt by many who have walked before us. Poems we know deeply speak what we need to hear at the most opportune times.

For January, a month where our culture preaches change and improvement, we turn our attention to a poem of aspiration for what life can be…

---

My Symphony by William Henry Channing

Photo by Hans Eiskonen

Spoken:

Text:

To live content with small means.
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
    and refinement rather than fashion.
To be worthy not respectable,
    and wealthy not rich.
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently,
    act frankly, to listen to stars, birds, babes,
    and sages with open heart, to bear all cheerfully,
    do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.
In a word, to let the spiritual,
    unbidden and unconscious,
    grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony.

Video:

The Poet:

If you are interested in William Henry Channing’s biography, check out this summary on Harvard Square Library. This man was one who inspired many with his words, but even more, inspired with how he loved.

And if his eloquence, like the flame of a torch in the wind, sometimes mounted upward so ardently as to lose for a moment all visible contact with its socket, it was always brought back to earth again by that intense love of mankind which was the point of departure of all its soarings.

Chat:

This is the point in our memorization process where we move the conversation to a Thread in the Chat function in the SubStack app/website. The text of the poem is posted there for paid subscribers to read and come back to. Check in today and throughout the week to hear how others in this community are memorizing the poem, the impact it is having on their week, and to discuss the themes in the poem.

---

Make this experience your own, choosing how you approach the poem’s content, your memorization process, and connect with us in the chat!

I look forward to our conversation!

Brian

---