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 PoemWilliam Stafford's "A Message from the Wanderer"
“That’s the way everything in the world is waiting.” Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemF. S. Flint's "London, my beautiful"
Today’s poem falls somewhere in the middle of a Venn diagram of haiku and English ode. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this…
The Daily PoemScott Cairns' "Idiot Psalm 12"
Today’s poem is a song of (sometimes) hidden nearness. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemMatthew Arnold's "The Buried Life"
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…
The Daily PoemJane Taylor's "Twinkle, twinkle, little star"
Today’s poem has taken on a life of its own; we return, for a moment, to its humble beginnings. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemDylan Thomas' "Prologue"
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…
The Daily PoemWendell Berry's "Sabbath IV, 1996"
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. This is…
The Daily PoemEdna St. Vincent Millay’s “Feast”
Today’s poem is one in which “increase of appetite grows by what it feeds on” (or so she says). Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemWilliam Wordsworth's "Character of the Happy Warrior"
“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. This is a…
The Daily PoemWilliam Blake's "The Ecchoing Green"
Today’s poem is a snapshot of a lost world. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to…
The Daily PoemAlfred Noyes' "Daddy Fell Into the Pond"
Today’s poem reminds us of a father’s value. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to…
The Daily PoemPaul J. Pastor's "The Oracle"
Today’s poem offers a new year’s resolution worth keeping. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemPhilip Appleman’s “To the Garbage Collectors in Bloomington, Indiana, the First Pickup of the New Year”
It’s that time of (new) year again. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus…
The Daily PoemA. A. Milne’s “King John’s Christmas”
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. This is a public…
The Daily PoemClare Bevan's "Just Doing My Job"
A poem of innocence and experience for the turning of the year. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers…
The Daily PoemCecil Day-Lewis' "The Christmas Tree"
A merry continuation of Christmas, and happy reading! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus…
The Daily PoemHenry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Christmas Bells"
Merry Christmas! The Daily Poem will return next week! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus…
The Daily PoemAnna Kamienska's "Elijah Widow"
Today’s poem intimates that it may be better to receive than to give. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemHelen Maria Williams' "To Mrs K____, On Her Sending Me an English Christmas Plum-Cake at Paris"
Today’s poem is an ode to the power of holiday baked goods. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or…
The Daily PoemW. H. Auden's "For the Time Being" pt. 5
Today’s episode brings us to the eternal aftermath of Christmas and the end of For the Time Being. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemW. H. Auden's "For the Time Being" pt. 4
In today’s installment, St. Simeon has finally seen the light and humanity struggles against itself. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemW. H. Auden's "For the Time Being" pt. 3
In today’s selections, the shepherds and wise men are the broken fragments of human life being drawn together around the manger. Happy reading. This is a…
The Daily PoemW. H. Auden's "For the Time Being" pt. 2
More from Auden’s poem–today the full cast of characters is summoned. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemW. H. Auden "For the Time Being" pt. 1
This week’s episodes will feature selections from Auden’s lengthy “Christmas Oratorio,” in which he claimed to treat of “a religious event which eternally…
The Daily PoemTed Kooser's "Christmas Mail"
Today’s poem is for all of the mail carriers. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to…
The Daily PoemJohn Robert Lee's "XIX: I often wonder whether the prodigal son"
Today’s poem–from Lee’s new book, After Poems, Psalms–offers memory and the psalter as parallel texts for Lectio Divina. Happy reading. Lee’s book is…
The Daily PoemRobert Frost's "Dust of Snow"
Robert Frost is having one of those days. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus…
The Daily PoemMary Mapes Dodge's "A Song for St. Nicholas"
Today’s poem is an appeal to the jolly giver of gifts. Happy reading!For more St. Nick poems, head over to the St. Nicholas Center. This is a public episode…
The Daily PoemLuci Shaw's "Holding On"
Today’s poem is a tribute to the kind and lovely Luci Shaw, who died earlier this week. The poem–a contemplation of mortality–is a representative sample of her…
The Daily PoemJohn Keats' "In drear nighted December"
Today’s poem speaks of speaking the unspeakable, and feeling the un-feelable. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemJane Kenyon's "Let Evening Come"
Whether your burgeoning inter-holiday malaise needs pruning or a little low-key encouragement, today’s poem (on a Monday, no less!) might be just the thing…
The Daily PoemDorianne Laux's "A Short History of the Apple"
Today’s poem goes out as a palate-cleanser for everyone who may have lost their relish for eating after the Thanksgiving holiday. Happy reading. This is a…
The Daily PoemBen Jonson's "Inviting a Friend to Supper"
Today’s poem is just the thing if you need to make any last-minute invitations to Thanksgiving dinner. Happy reading! This is a public episode. If you'd like…
The Daily PoemWilliam Matthews' "Onions"
Today’s poem is the perfect prelude to Thanksgiving–not only by whetting the appetite, but by uncovering the hidden glories of one of the most enduring and…
The Daily PoemGeorge Herbert's "Anagram"
Today’s poem, though brief, is arguably “bigger on the inside,” just like its subject. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this…
The Daily PoemArchibald MacLeish's "Ars Poetica"
It’s one thing to write a poem claiming poetry should show rather than tell; it is another thing entirely for that poem to follow its own advice. Happy…
The Daily PoemRobert Burns' "Epistle to a Young Friend"
In today’s poem (sometimes printed alternatively as “Letter to a Young Friend”), Scotland’s national poet gives life advice with his characteristic blend of…
The Daily PoemEmily Dickinson's "I dwell in Possibility"
Today’s poem is a little more (purposefully) enigmatic than most of Dickinson’s verse. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this…
The Daily PoemRobert Hass' "After the Gentle Poet Kobayashi Issa"
Today’s poem may be triggering for anyone who has had to endure a vacation they didn’t plan or really even want to go. Happy reading. This is a public episode…
The Daily PoemJohn Keats' "To Autumn"
Today’s poem comes from a young man (he died at 25) whose Spring and Autumn were the same. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss…
The Daily PoemRobert Louis Stevenson's "Sing me a Song of a Lad that is Gone"
Today’s poem sings of one of the most painful and irremediable forms of nostalgia. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with…
The Daily PoemGeorge Starbuck's "Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line"
Today’s poem is a “row of perfect rhymes” and an absolute delight. Happy reading. You can find the text of the poem here. George Starbuck was born in Columbus…
The Daily PoemRobert Frost's "My November Guest"
November mood. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit…
The Daily PoemMarjorie Kinnan Rawlings' "Lemon Pie"
Today’s poem is about something very very spooky–a tough crust. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers…
The Daily PoemSeamus Heaney's "Follower"
Today’s poem reminds us that we are destined to become the parents of our parents. (I also dedicate it to a child who makes me feel better about that…
The Daily PoemGerard Manley Hopkins' "Spring and Fall"
Why do we hate change? Today’s poem hazards a guess. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemOgden Nash's "A Lady Who Thinks She Is Thirty"
Today’s poem may be one of the most poem-y poems Nash ever wrote. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers…
The Daily PoemWendell Berry's "Sabbath Poem III, 1994"
In today’s poem Berry draws King Lear into his sabbath reflections. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemR. S. Thomas' "The Fisherman"
Today’s poem typifies the earthy clarity that Welsh poet R. S. Thomas perfected in his verse. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss…
The Daily PoemJ. R. R. Tolkien's "The Root of the Boot"
Today’s poem traveled across many years and iterations to finally end up on the tongue of Samwise Gamgee in The Fellowship of the Ring. Happy reading! This is…
The Daily PoemAlfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
Today’s poem is both metrical marvel and moving memorial. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemRobert Frost's "Birches"
Today’s poem is a classical example of Frost’s virtuosity in crafting solid figures–here trees, climbing, etc.–that stubbornly defy allegorizing, but that…
The Daily PoemCharles and Mary Lamb's "Feigned Courage"
Today’s poem couples a vanished past with a timeless present. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or…
The Daily PoemTed Kooser's "How to Foretell a Change in the Weather"
My old knee injury usually alerts me to changes in the weather, but in today’s poem Kooser offers a litany of other indicators. Happy reading. This is a public…
The Daily PoemLinda Pastan's "The Dogwoods"
Today’s poem is a tribute to the seasonal liftings-of-the-veil that reveal to us the beauty undergirding the world. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If…
The Daily PoemLewis Carroll's "You Are Old, Father William"
In today’s poem: the dignity of old age, and Charles Dodgson as the Victorian Weird Al. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this…
The Daily PoemJohn Donne's "The Relic"
John Donne muses on the ineffability of a chaste love and devises a brilliant (or, at any rate, novel) scheme for reuniting with his loved one in the next…
The Daily PoemJ. R. R. Tolkien's "The Last of the Old Gods"
Tolkien was no believer in the power of geo-political solutions to better the state of man, convinced that his duty was to fight “the long defeat” while…
The Daily PoemRalph Waldo Emerson's "Fable"
Emerson spent a lot of time observing the natural world. In today’s poem, he couples that pastime with an art form that specializes in human nature. Happy…
The Daily PoemGeoffrey Hill's "Genesis"
In today’s poem, a young Geoffrey Hill is looking for a story to believe in. Happy reading. Known as one of the greatest poets of his generation writing in…