Things To Remember

The speaker is grieving a relationship that has ended and tries to manage the pain by sorting memories into two groups: things to keep and things to forget. At first, this sounds like a practical plan, but the speaker soon admits that feelings do not follow that plan. The mood is sorrowful and frustrated, with a wish to focus only on the present.

The “list” represents an attempt to bring order to painful emotions. The meeting and the parting are both marked as things to remember, showing that the beginning and ending of the relationship remain connected in memory. Likewise, “plans that were set” recall hopes for the future, while “plans didn’t work out” names the disappointment that followed.

The repeated question about why the heart will not cooperate suggests a conflict between deliberate choice and involuntary feeling: the speaker wants to forget, but cannot simply decide to do so. The phrase “things to remember today” may mean the speaker hopes to limit attention to the present, rather than revisit the whole past. Yet it remains unclear whether this is a realistic goal or a plea made in a moment of sadness.