The Daily Poem

“There is no time like Spring that passes by,/Now newly born, and now/Hastening to die.” 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem argues you don’t have to like birthdays to have a happy one. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today is the birthday of poet Randall Jarrell, and today’s poem does what birthdays themselves can sometimes do: remind us of the simple glories of every-day existence. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem uses the clever manipulation of a symbol to tease out the heart of male communication. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem is guaranteed to make you itch. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem is about the necessary death and resurrection of the titular figure. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem is about the attention needed to find…a poem. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem, singing of the first trial of Sir Galahad, is an excerpt from Malcolm Guite’s Arthurian ballad, Galahad and the Grail . Happy reading. Galahad and the Grail is available from all booksellers , or in special editions direct from the publisher . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.co...

Today’s poem captures the stab and indelible imprint of unintended destruction. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem is from an author seldom associated with poetry today, though in his lifetime his verse garnered considerable recognition. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem presents two kinds of fools–those who know they need mercy, and those who don’t. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem is very much on-brand for Butler, whose best-known short story, “Pigs is Pigs,” concerns “a bureaucratic stationmaster who insists on levying the livestock rate for a shipment of two pet guinea pigs.” 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.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s poem the speaker has seen the light. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Now Calvary was loveliness:/Lilies that flowered thereupon Pulled off the white moon’s pallid dress,/And put the morning’s vesture on. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem, translated by Robin Flowers, was originally written in Old Irish inside an 8th-century scribe’s copy of St. Paul’s epistles. However, it reveals its anonymous author to be anything but a bored and disinterested grunt. Happy reading. N.B. Here is a wonderful reading of the poem in Old Irish. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access t...

Today’s poem is one of Shakespeare’s “irregular” sonnets–he’s got 99 problems (most of them flowers), but strict obedience to the requirements of the sonnet form ain’t one. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem imagines the long life of Lazarus as he awaits, like Eliot’s magi, “another death.” 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem is a hirsute parody of a much better poem. Sorry in advance. 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.substack.com/subscribe

In the 19th century, poems about the loss of children became a little genre of their own. Today’s poem is a decidedly uncharacteristic example of the form. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem answers the question you never thought to ask: what do a poem, a barnyard, and a marriage have in common? 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.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s poem, Rilke (trans. J.B. Leishman) imagines the Annunciation from Gabriel’s perspective. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem wonders what it means to recognize and appreciate a gift. 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.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s poem contemplates the ways and “why”s of saying nothing, before culminating in a shattering pun on “nothing.” 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.substack.com/subscribe

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. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

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. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe