Millay the poetPoetry Challenge
At the start of April 2020’s National Poetry Month, when the COVID-19 pandemic was keeping us all indoors, we turned to Millay’s poems for solace and inspiration, buoyed by her keen wit and insight into the human condition. By sharing her work with others from our living rooms, kitchens, and other makeshift studios, we hoped to lift the spirits of friends and strangers alike with the equalizing power of poetry.
On this page are the collected submissions from the many talented Millay fans who accepted our challenge to video themselves reading or reciting a favorite Millay poem on their iPhone, iPad or computer.
Megan Ainsworth
Time does not bring relief, you all have lied
Barbara Blair
Exiled
Melissa Baird
Recuerdo
Katie Barbato
The Blue-Flag in the Bog
Vincent Barnett
The Fawn
Jeanne Marie Beaumont
And you as well must die, my belovèd dust
Bill Bless
Excerpts from “Renascence”
Laurel Blossom
Dirge Without Music
Betty Buckley
Souvenir
Nancy Castaldo
On Thought in Harness
Kathleen Chalfant
If It Should Rain
Kimberly Collison
Kin to Sorrow
Tandy Cronyn
Recuerdo
Blythe Danner
I know I am but summer to your heart
Steven DeWater
Even in the moment of our earliest kiss
Carmel Dean
First Fig / The Penitent
Jerri Dell
Daphne
Graeme Dempsey
Love is Not All
Alison Fraser
Departure
Barbara Feldon
Rendezvous
Joanna Gleason
The Ballad Of The Harp Weaver
Joanna Gleason
Dirge Without Music
Charlie Gravina
Un Poema de Un Mil Lays
Nikki Grimes
Ashes of Life
Krystyna Poray
Well, I have lost you; and I lost you fairly
Karen Alkalay-Gut
I Shall Forget You Presently, My Dear
Paul Hecht
Childhood is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies
Amy Higgins
Spring
Thomas Hill
Prayer to Persephone
Timothy Jackson
Winter Night
George Jempty
Lines for a Grave-stone
Laura Kilnkon
The heart once broken is a heart no more
Sally Murray
Passer Mortuus Est
Eric Johnson
Rosemary
Marilyn Johnston
Wild Swans
Mary Kelly
An Ancient Gesture
Christina Avis Krauss
Oh, my belovèd, have you thought of this
Dan Lauria
Love is Not All
Linda Law
Song of A Second April
Brigitte Lubker
Tavern
Sue Ann Martin
Land of Romance (by Edna St. Vincent Millay, age 14)
Barry Mastellone
If I should learn, in some quite casual way
Jon Mathewson
The Concert
Roberta Maxwell
Spring
Michael Minchak
The Gardener in Haying Time
Don Mitchell
Oh, think not I am faithful to a vow
Paul Newbury
Not in a silver casket cool with pearls
Mark O’Berski
The True Encounter
Alicia Ostriker
Wild Swans
Holly Peppe
What lips my lips have kissed
Yvonne Perry
I Shall Forget You Presently, My Dear
Kathryn Petruccelli
Inland
Paula Plum
What lips my lips have kissed
Stacy Pratt
Eel-Grass / Travel
Brenny Rabine
Kin to Sorrow
Monroe Co. NY Select Senior Choir (2019)
Afternoon on a Hill
Tim Ross
The Penitent
Anina Rossen
Only until this cigarette is ended
Irene Bueno Royo
Love is Not All
Kathryn Sadja
The Courage That My Mother Had
Thoams Smith
Three Songs from “The Lamp and the Bell”
Julie Carr Smyth
An Ancient Gesture
Judy Soukup
I think I should have loved you presently
John L Stanizzi
The Dream
Jennifer Van Dyck
When you, that at this moment are to me
Shasha Volokh
Dirge Without Music
Cole Walsh
The Spring and the Fall
Susan West
Spring Song
Dr. Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon
Dirge Without Music
Lora Woodward