A Poem a Day

The Poetry Foundation, publishers of Poetry magazine, have a "Poem of the Day" program that sends subscribers one poem every morning around 10 a.m. Like Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project and Billy Collin's Poetry 180 program and books, it's a small but concrete way of circulating poetry to a large audience and exposing new readers to the diversity and energy of contemporary poetry in a way that fits into a busy daily schedule. Having gotten their emails for about a year now, I can tell you that not every poem they send is great; some are delete-able; some are repeats; others you will find challenging (never a bad thing); but many, like the string of winners they have sent out this week, are absolutely worth it and will change your day for the better, if they are given the small moment of consideration they ask for. This morning's poem:

The World Is in Pencil

BY TODD BOSS

—not pen. It’s got

that same silken

dust about it, doesn’t it,

that same sense of

having been roughed

onto paper even  

as it was planned.

It had to be a labor

of love. It must’ve

taken its author some

time, some shove.

I’ll bet it felt good

in the hand—the o

of the ocean, and

the and and the and

of the land.

Source: Poetry (November 2011).

Other good poems from the past week from the Poetry Foundation:

“Knowledge,” by Louise Bogan

"After Work," by John Maloney

"Impromptu," by J. Allyn Rosser

By checking a box at the bottom of the website's page, you can subscribe to the "Poem of the Day" without getting annoying newsletters, et cetera.