Some Shakespeare for Tara's Hope Library

The LIVE video was a bit of an experiment. I am obviously not a natural in front of any video camera whatsoever, but I suppose if I tried to make a habit of live videos I will probably get better. But anyway here is the actual poem:

My friend

Tara Penry

recently made a call out to readers to write a post about a book that gives you hope. The deadline for writing is today, Thursday 2/27.2025!

The Hope Library - What's Your Story?

However, knowing that I may have poetry in my head, Tara tagged me in this Note:

Being a bit short on time, I went ahead and briefly recorded the Live Video, in part just to see if my technology could do this as easily as Substack claimed it could. (Yes, it worked surprisingly well.) I chose Sonnet 29 because it is one of a number of poems I had recommended in this call for help:

The result turned out to be one of her most popular posts, Poems to Carry in the Blood. Please take a look at the whole post because it is a great resource if you are looking for poems to memorize.

Poems to Carry in the Blood

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And Sonnet 29 was the top of the sonnet list:

Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

BY William Shakespeare

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
  For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
  That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

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This poem really is about how the antidote to shame is philia — the love between friends, a bond between people of common values and interests. The speaker of the poem feels the desolation of not being good enough and looking jealously at what others have. Yet, it is in remembering that there is someone out there that loves them that not even the acclaim of kings matters. True wealth comes with philia.

This fear of not being good enough is paralyzing. And it is even more so when you are doing everything alone. However, what many of the Substacks to which I subscribe do is create a community where we support each other. We learn from each other. We answer each other’s calls for help. This is the beauty of what Tara has done in her writing, and it is why I am so happy to be her friend. I hope you can tell from my recitation that when I said “Haply I think on thee…” I was thinking of Tara, many of my readers, and the friends I have made in my MFA. For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Much love to all, and I hope some of you will write your own posts… or recite some poetry (yours or someone else’s) on a LIVE video. (If you do, please tag me!)