The Daily Poem
An audio anthology of the best poetry ever written
- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 7 minutes
- Episodes
- 982
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2025
Lucy Maud Montgomery's "A Request"
Today’s poem is channeling Anne Shirley in the autumn of her years. Happy reading.
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Linda Pastan's "Something About the Trees"
Today’s poem takes full advantage of the pantoum form’s naturally-contemplative structure–the repeating lines carrying us back and forth between past, present, and an undetermined future. Happy readi…
Jane Kenyon's "Three Songs at the End of Summer"
In today’s poem, Kenyon wrestles with the Solomonic thesis that “the end of a thing is better than its beginning.” Happy reading.
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Ogden Nash's "The People Upstairs"
Noisy upstairs neighbors have been consternating mankind for as long as second-floors have existed. The all-too-familiar phenomenon has inspired novels, movies, Tom Waits songs, and even a poem or tw…
Emily Dickinson's "How soft a Caterpillar steps —"
Philosopher Thomas Nagel famously argued that it is impossible to know what it’s like to be a bat. Dickinson, on the other hand, claims to know what caterpillars care (or don’t care) about. Happy rea…
Randall Jarrell's "The Lost World"
Today’s poem is the first half of Randall Jarrell’s reverie about his Los Angeles childhood–and one of the most effortless examples of terza rima in all of English poetry.
This is a public episode. I…
Rudyard Kipling’s “The Ballad of the Clampherdown”
Today’s poem is the satirical saga of an anachronistic naval battle. Heave ho and happy reading!
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Fire of Drift-wood"
Nothing feels better and hurts worse than nostalgia. Happy reading.
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Miroslav Holub's "Napoleon"
Today’s brief poem goes out to teachers everywhere as they return to work. Good luck and happy reading.
“Poet Seamus Heaney described Holub’s writing as ‘a laying bare of things, not so much the skull…
John Keats' "To Sleep"
“To die, to sleep.” Sometimes the space between the two seems as slight as that intervening comma. Happy reading.
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William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 94: They that have power to hurt..."
I might say today’s poem is all subtext–if it weren’t for all the text. Ambiguous praise, sincere romantic angst, just the right amount of bitter wit: this sonnet has it all. Happy reading.
This is a…
Live: William Carlos Williams' "The Fool's Song"
This special, live edition of The Daily Poem was recorded at the Close Reads 10th Anniversary celebration last weekend in Concord, NC. Happy reading!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discus…
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' "Prize Jelly"
Best known as the author of The Yearling and Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings enjoyed a long side-hustle as an occasional poet. Happy reading.
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Malcolm Guite's "Transfiguration"
Today’s poem comes from Guite’s excellent collection, Sounding the Seasons (now in a new edition with over 100 sonnets!). Blessed feast and happy reading.
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Terrence Hayes’ “The Same City”
Hayes has said he longs for a language that can circumvent idea and communicate pure emotion—in today’s poem that quest is dramatized in a powerful way. Happy reading.
This is a public episode. If yo…
Billy Collins' "On Turning Ten"
Happy tenth birthday to the Close Reads podcast, and happy reading!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.…
Philip Appleman's "Anniversary"
Today’s poem is one of “promises kept, and / promises / still to keep.” Happy reading.
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John Donne's "The Anniversary"
Today’s poem looks forward to a long and prosperous “reign.” Happy reading.
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Rhina P. Espaillat's "Gardening"
This week’s poems are arranged around the themes of retrospection and anniversaries in honor of the Close Reads Podcast celebrating its tenth year. Today, we have Rhina Espaillat turning over rich so…
Carole Boston Weatherford's "Sidewalk Chalk"
Today’s poem is a little hopscotch down memory lane. Happy reading.
Weatherford is author of over seventy books including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry inspired, she says, by “family stories, fadin…