The Daily Poem

Today’s poem began its life as a bit of black humor, but lives on as a raw and relatable expression of real grief. Happy reading.

Today’s poem juxtaposes scenes of summer warmth to scenes of torrential bluster with a seamlessness that would make the best film editor jealous. Happy reading.

Today’s poem captures the agonies and ecstacies of thinking about the absent beloved. Happy reading.

Today’s poem employs an image worthy of Homer to touch the stark reality of a mother’s intuition. Happy reading.

Today’s poem is a selection from the Old English, Beowulf, translated by R. M. Liuzza. In these lines, Beowulf prepares for a harrowing showdown with Grendel’s mother, and the cold, clear beauty of the lines almost makes you wish you were there. Happy reading.

Today’s poem answers the question: if cats are the animal world’s “Napoleon of crime,” who is the cat world’s “Napoleon of crime?” Happy reading.

Today’s poem comes from Graves’ verse/prose rendering of Homer’s Iliad, The Anger of Achilles, and highlights the inglorious causes of the Trojan War’s glorious climax. Happy reading.

Today’s poem is a sonnet for a war-torn world with a collapsing center.

“…As the oldest of four children born in rapid succession, Wilfred developed a protective attitude toward the others and an especially close relationship with his mother. After he turned four, the family moved from the grandfather’s home to a modest house in Birkenhead, where Owen attended Birkenhead Institute from 1900 to 1907. The family then moved to another modest house, in Shrewsbury, where Owen attended Shrewsbury Technical School and graduated in 1911 at the age of 18. Having attempted unsuccessfully to win a scholarship to attend London U...

Today’s poem goes out to all of the women who have been stuck between two pugilistic men at a dinner party. Happy reading.

Today’s poem asks: “What happens inside a poem?” Happy reading.

Today’s poem is a seemingly innocuous enjoinder to handwashing that nevertheless invites a deeper inspection. Happy reading.

Anyone with children can recognize the degree to which we enter this life “Warm with the noble vows of youth,/Hallowing [one’s] true arm to the truth.” Happy reading.

Today’s poem is a selection from Eliot’s profound contemplation of conversion and repentance. Happy reading.

In today’s poem, the composer-poet identifies with an object he knows inside and out. Happy reading.

Today’s poem is pure language joy. Happy reading.

Today’s poem pits art against reality, with the French monarchy as the only clear loser. Happy reading.

If Robert Frost were a musician, today’s poem might be a B-side to one of his better-known poems. Happy reading.

“may you kiss / the wind then turn from it” Today’s poem is a benediction for boats and, maybe, a lot of other things. Happy reading.

Today’s poem is a contemplation of sometimes-essential footwear that blossoms unexpectedly into a proverb on utility and beauty. Happy reading.

“That’s the way everything in the world is waiting.” Happy reading.

Today’s poem falls somewhere in the middle of a Venn diagram of haiku and English ode. Happy reading.

Today’s poem is a song of (sometimes) hidden nearness. Happy reading.

Today’s poem is a frank examination of words and their paradoxical power to create and destroy intimacy, bringing forth the deepest self or walling it off–and what is possible when we make the best use of them. Happy reading.

Today’s poem has taken on a life of its own; we return, for a moment, to its humble beginnings. Happy reading.

Today’s poem, unusual in its structure and rhyme, turned out to be more of an epilogue: Thomas composed it for inclusion in his Collected Poems, no more than a year before his death. Happy reading.

I may be the only other man who has had some version of the cold-night-existential experience described in today’s poem, but I doubt it. Happy reading.

Today’s poem is one in which “increase of appetite grows by what it feeds on” (or so she says). Happy reading.

“Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he/That every man in arms should wish to be?” In today’s poem, Wordsworth asks unfamiliar questions. Happy reading.

Today’s poem is a snapshot of a lost world. Happy reading.

Today’s poem reminds us of a father’s value. Happy reading.

Today’s poem offers a new year’s resolution worth keeping. Happy reading.

It’s that time of (new) year again. Happy reading.

As we say farewell to the Christmas season, today’s poem playfully reminds us that the feast is for the good and bad alike. Happy reading.

A poem of innocence and experience for the turning of the year. Happy reading.

A merry continuation of Christmas, and happy reading!

Merry Christmas! The Daily Poem will return next week!

Today’s poem intimates that it may be better to receive than to give. Happy reading.

Today’s poem is an ode to the power of holiday baked goods. Happy reading.

Today’s episode brings us to the eternal aftermath of Christmas and the end of For the Time Being. Happy reading.

In today’s installment, St. Simeon has finally seen the light and humanity struggles against itself. Happy reading.