Shows / The Daily Poem
The Daily Poem
The Daily Poem offers one essential poem each weekday morning. From Shakespeare and John Donne to Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, The Daily Poem curates a broad and generous audio anthology of the best poetry ever written, read-aloud by David Kern and an assortment of various contributors. Some lite commentary is included and the shorter poems are often read twice, as time permits. The Daily Poem is presented by Goldberry Studios.
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Episodes
The Daily PoemDudley Randall’s “Booker T. and W.E.B.”
Today’s poem offers two ways of being in America–maybe the world–and like so many great poems it is eminently concrete but easily universalized. Happy reading…
The Daily PoemLawrence Ferlinghetti’s “The Changing Light”
Today’s poem traces the waxing and waning of lights around the Bay City. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemSamuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Knight’s Tomb”
In today’s poem, arboreal imagery indicates the fate of a knight’s soul. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemVernon Watkins’ “Camelot”
Today’s poem feels the deep sadnesses of Arthurian myth in the poet’s native soil. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with…
The Daily PoemLisel Mueller’s “When I am Asked”
Today’s poem offers poetry as a survival mechanism. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access…
The Daily PoemCharles G. Eastman’s “The Yellow Corn”
Today’s poem exults unselfconsciously in a rich harvest. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemRobert Frost’s “After Apple-Picking”
Today’s poem meander’s sleepily but steadily through an irregular rhyme scheme and looks back on a day’s work–if not more. Happy reading. This is a public…
The Daily PoemTracy K. Smith’s “Einstein’s Mother”
Today’s poem offers an implicit encouragement to harried mothers. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers…
The Daily PoemTed Kooser’s “Applesauce”
Today’s poem taps into the powerful connection between food, love, and nostalgia. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with…
The Daily PoemEmily Dickinson’s “A Thunderstorm”
Today’s poem is especially topical as The Daily Poem returns after a brief storm delay. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this…
The Daily PoemSeamus Heaney’s “Storm on the Island”
Today’s poem weathers the unfriendliness of the natural world. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or…
The Daily PoemWilliam Shakespeare’s “As fast as thou shalt wane...” (Sonnet 11)
In today’s poem the bard urges his subject not to bury the gifts of Nature in the grave. Happy reading. Want to send your teen to a day of Shakespearean wisdom…
The Daily PoemLi Bai’s “Taking Leave of a Friend”
Today’s poem–a masterclass in subtlety and imagery–makes you feel the scale of the farewell before it arrives. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If…
The Daily Poem“Sweeney Praises the Trees”
Today’s poem, translated from the Irish by Seamus Heaney, delivers precisely what the title promises. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemHelen Hunt Jackson’s “September”
Today’s poem praises September and mystifies it with a coy turn in the final stanza. Enjoy the last day of this finest of months. Happy reading. This is a…
The Daily PoemPablo Neruda’s “Ode to the Yellow Bird”
Today’s poem is a lament over a caged beauty. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to…
The Daily PoemEdward Lear’s “How Pleasant To Know...”
Today’s poem is a comic self-portrait in verse from a poet who spent years working as a painter. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemAlfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”
In today’s poem, death is a country beyond the sea. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access…
The Daily PoemGeorge Herbert’s “The Pulley”
Today’s poem gives us a poet making sense of his restlessness and finding in it the mechanism that draws him upward to God. Happy reading. This is a public…
The Daily PoemMarsden Hartley’s “Salutations to a Mouse”
In today’s poem, the poet discovers unexpected value in his writing. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemAnnie Dillard’s “How we spend our days”
Today we are remembering Annie Dillard. Her poem offers not only advice for living, but an approach to understanding a life in retrospect. Happy reading. This…
The Daily PoemAlgernon Charles Swinburne’s “Sestina”
Today’s poem heightened the form it’s named for by adding patterned rhyme. Even with the added complexity, this sometimes-rigid form strikes the ear as verse…
The Daily PoemScott Cairns’ “Chemo With Coleridge”
Today’s poem, from Cairns’ new Against Certainty, ponders the value of intravenous poetry. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss…
The Daily PoemWendell Berry’s “Sabbath Poem III, 1994”
Today’s poem is, quite simply, one of my favorites. Berry uses Shakespeare to tell us we cannot see our life clearly until we have passed through death. Happy…
The Daily PoemWendell Berry’s “The Guest”
Today’s poem confesses the discomfort and undesirability of loving our neighbor. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with…
The Daily PoemWendell Berry’s “In a Motel Parking Lot, Thinking of Dr. Williams”
Today’s poem is part tribute, part poetic manifesto. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemJane Austen’s “Mock Panegyric on a Young Friend”
Today’s poem marshals Austen’s characteristic wit to praise feminine virtues via comparison to American geography. Fellas, don’t try this at home. Happy…
The Daily PoemElizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Grief”
Today’s poem, pitting Victorian stoicism against Victorian sentimentality, contends that the truest grief is the most austere and long-lived. Happy reading…
The Daily PoemWendell Berry’s “Testament”
Composed in 1971 as a self-eulogy, today’s poem is a remembrance of Wendell Berry who embarked for the greater Port Royal yesterday at the age of 92. May his…
The Daily PoemOliver Wendell Holmes’ “The Last Leaf”
Holmes wrote that the man who inspired today’s poem reminded him of "a withered leaf which has held to its stem through the storms of autumn and winter, and…
The Daily PoemFrancis Jammes’ “A Prayer to Go to Paradise with the Donkeys”
Today’s poem, translated by Richard Wilbur, is part animal appreciation, prayer for a good death. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemWilliam Shakespeare’s Sonnet 71 (“No longer mourn for me when I am dead”)
Today’s poem has a different preoccupation than most Shakespearean sonnets–not immortalizing the beloved, but effacing the lover. Happy reading. This is a…
The Daily PoemJohn Milton’s Proem to Paradise Lost
Today’s poem is the opening lines of a famous epic poem–composed by a blind poet, about the fall of a great kingdom, a devious stratagem, and a long journey…
The Daily PoemShel Silverstein’s “Sick”
Today’s poem is angling for a day off. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus…
The Daily PoemDavid Wagoner’s “The Junior High School Band Concert”
“No doubt, in his mind’s earSome band somewhereIn some music of some SphereWas striking a note as pureAs the wishes of Franz Schubert,But meanwhile here we…
The Daily PoemWilliam Blake's "The School Boy"
Today’s poem is a more eloquent version of an appeal being made in many households this month. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemBill Watterson's "The Yukon Song"
Today’s poem turns the Yukon territory into every boy’s dream. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or…
The Daily PoemThomas Dekker's "The Happy Heart"
Today’s poem ponders the soft pillow of poverty and even boasts a Beatles connection. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this…
The Daily PoemJohn Donne's "The Good-Morrow"
“My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears.” In today’s poem, love awakens the sleeper to new life. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemWalter de la Mare's "Silver"
Today’s poem is bathed in moonlight. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus…
The Daily PoemSt. John of the Cross's "The Soul Aflame"
Today’s poem is another contemplation of ambivalence toward life that conceals a deeper commitment to life. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd…
The Daily PoemAngela Morgan's "Work: A Song of Triumph"
Today’s poem is a very enthusiastic paean to work (doth the lady protest too much?). Happy Monday and Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemRobert Louis Stevenson's "Consolation"
Today’s poem is a tender consolation after the loss of a friend, suitable for young and old alike. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemFrancis Thompson's "The Kingdom of God"
In today’s poem, the transcendent is immanent. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to…
The Daily PoemEmily Dickinson's "If I can stop one heart from breaking"
Today’s poem uses an unrhymed line to make its point. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemOscar Wilde’s “Portia”
In today’s poem, an embodied literary character possesses the power to steal the hearts of living men. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like…
The Daily PoemRobert Service's "The Law of the Yukon"
Today’s poem might be the photo-negative of Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus;” the personified Yukon does not mince words in saying the tired, huddled masses…
The Daily PoemWisława Szymborska's "In Praise of My Sister"
Today’s poem enjoys (among other things) the sheer relief of escaping from other poets. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this…
The Daily PoemEzra Pound's "Meditatio"
Today’s poem ponders man’s dignity. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus…
The Daily PoemThomas Lux’s “A Little Tooth”
Today’s poem lets the reader experience all the dread and feeling of parenthood in nine lines. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemHerman Melville's "In the Prison Pen"
Today’s poem comes from a writer not remembered for his poetry, but when Melville’s early success as a novelist seemed to falter, he dedicated a number of…
The Daily PoemCarl Sandburg's "Back Yard"
Today’s poem is all summer atmosphere. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus…
The Daily PoemRobert Frost's "For Once, Then, Something"
Today’s poem is a poem about the way looking gets in the way of what we perceive. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with…
The Daily PoemEdgar Guest's "A Boy and His Dad "
Today’s poem speaks unironically of a pastoral Eden where fathers and sons commune with one another while the fish jump. Happy reading. This is a public…
The Daily PoemRichard Armour's "Parental Pride"
Today’s poem takes a well-meant jab at the things we say about babies. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemWilliam McGonagall's "Attempted Assassination of the Queen"
Today’s poem comes from the pen of the perfect mid-week poet. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or…
The Daily PoemPrudentius' "The Passion of the Apostles Peter and Paul"
Today’s poem, originally a 4th-century Latin composition, details the celebration of Sts. Peter and Paul in ancient Rome. Happy reading. This is a public…
The Daily PoemPablo Neruda's "Ode To The Artichoke"
Today’s poem is a paean to the world’s greatest vegetable. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemPablo Neruda's "Sonnet XVII"
Today’s poem, probably Neruda’s best-known (tr. Stephen Mitchell), goes out to all the June brides. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemMary Oliver’s “No Matter What”
Today’s poem tangles and untangles the sweet permanence of impermanence. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…