Poetry Daily: Poems from the World's Most Popular Poetry Website

482 Pages·2003·1.71 MB·English

by  Diane Boller

366 Poems from the World’s
Most Popular Poetry Website
Diane Boller, Don Selby, and Chryss Yost
editors
Rita Dove and Dana Gioia
advisory editors
Copyright©2003byDonSelby,DianeBoller,andChryssYost
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DianeBoller,DonSelby,andChryssYost.
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A b o u t t h e E d i t o r s
Don Selby cofounded Poetry Daily with Diane Boller and Rob Anderson following a twenty-year career in
the law-publishing industry. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Virginia School
of Law. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
In addition to her work with Poetry Daily, Diane Bollermaintains a career in law and publishing. She is a
graduate of the University of Virginia and the George Mason University School of Law. She lives in
Charlottesville, Virginia.
Chryss Yostis an award-winning poet, writer, and web designer. She works at the University of California and
is an editor of SOLO: A Journal of Poetry. With Dana Gioia and Jack Hicks, she coedited California Poetry:
From the Gold Rush to the Present. She lives in Santa Barbara, California, with her daughter, Cassidy.
Rita Doveserved as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant to the Library of Congress from
1993 to 1995. She has received numerous literary and academic honors, among them the 1987 Pulitzer
Prize in Poetry and, most recently, the 2001 Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award, the 1997 Sara
Lee Frontrunner Award, the 1997 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, the 1996 Heinz Award in the
Arts and Humanities, and the 1996 National Humanities Medal. Her latest poetry collection, On the Bus
with Rosa Parks, was published in 1999. Editor of The Best American Poetry 2000, she is Commonwealth
Professor of English at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Dana Gioia was born in Los Angeles in 1950. He received his B.A. and M.B.A. degrees from Stanford
University. He also has an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. For fifteen years, he
worked as a business executive in New York before quitting in 1992 to write full-time. Gioia is the author
of three volumes of poetry, Daily Horoscope, The Gods of Winter, and Interrogations at Noon.which won
the American Book Award in 2002, as well as an opera libretto, Nosferatu. Gioia’s critical collection, Can
Poetry Matter?was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is chairman of the National
Endowment for the Arts.
Table of Contents
viii. Acknowledgments
ix. Introduction
January
1. “V, x”—William Matthews 12. “Tulips”—Mark Halperin
2. “An Attempt”—Angela Ball 13. “Sea Washes Sand Scours Sea”—Tom Vander Ven
3. “Forget How to Remember How to Forget” 14. “239”—Michelangelo
—John Hollander 15. “Modulation”—Robert Clinton
4. “How the Demons Were Assimilated & Became 16. “Night Falling Fast”—Mary Jo Bang
Productive Citizens”—A. E. Stallings 17. “Sonata”—Mark Cox
5. “The Silence of the Stars”—David Wagoner 18. “Lightning Spreads Out across the Water”—Patricia
6. “The Nurse”—Dorianne Laux Fargnoli
7. “Pine”—Kimiko Hahn 19. “My Gospel Is”—Chris Forhan
8. “Absence”—Bob Hicok 20. “Figure and Ground”—Christine Garren
9. “What Do Women Want?”—Kim Addonizio 21. “Estuary”—Julie Fay
10. “Fetch”—Jeffrey Skinner 22. “Charon”—Zonas
11. “How Came What Came Alas”—HeidiLynn Nilsson 23. “Riddles”—Kathleen Peirce
12. “Nothing in That Drawer”—Ron Padgett 24. “The Machinist, Teaching His Daughter to Play the
13. “A Dog’s Grave”—Ted Kooser Piano”—B. H. Fairchild
14. “Old Man Leaves Party”—Mark Strand 25. “Happiness”—Jane Kenyon
15. “What the Living Do”—Marie Howe 26. “Raptor in the Kitchen”—Joyce Peseroff
16. “fromUnholy Sonnets”—Mark Jarman 27. “Vertigo”—Anne Stevenson
17. “A ’49 Merc”—Kurt Brown 28. “Determinate Inflorescence: Ephemera”—Liz Waldner
18. “Nearly a Valediction”—Marilyn Hacker 29. “My Father’s Hobby”—Morton Marcus
19. “On a Portrait of Two Beauties”—Ho Xuan Huong
March
20. “Landing Under Water, I See Roots”—Annie Finch
21. “Best”—Gregory Orr 1. “And in the Afternoons I Botanized”—Elton Glaser
22. “Gravelly Run”—A. R. Ammons 2. “The Year”—Janet Bowdan
23. “Why Fool Around?”—Stephen Dobyns 3. “In Love with You”—Kenneth Koch
24. “Riding Backwards on a Train”—James Hoch 4. “The Miraculous Mandarin”—Deborah Tall
25. “Kepler Considers the Dimensions of a Sheep” 5. “Voir Dire”—Elise Paschen
—Linden Ontjes 6. “Illumination”—R. T. Smith
26. “Division”—Michael Chitwood 7. “The Wreck”—Don Paterson
27. “Numbers”—Mary Cornish 8. “Irish Woman Washing”—Laima Sruoginis
28. “The Magic Mirror”—Edward Hirsch 9. “Domestic Work, 1937”—Natasha Trethewey
29. “Oprah Out of Control”—R. S. Gwynn 10. “The Woman Who Allowed Light to Have Its Way with
30. “Purgatory Chasm”—Timothy Donnelly Her”—Dannye Romine Powell
31. “Onomastics & the Falling Snow”—Steve Orlen 11. “Woman with Chrysler”—Jeremy Countryman
12. “Femme Fatale”—Suzanne Lummis
February
13. “Dearborn North Apartments”—Lola Haskins
1. “Lighting Up Time”—Dennis O’Driscoll 14. “Wrecked World”—Marilyn Annucci
2. “Marriage”—Anne Waldman 15. “In Alesia”—Andrew Hudgins
3. “Self-Portrait, Double Exposed”—Joanie Mackowski 16. “The Sun on Your Shoulder”—John Haines
4. “Farewell”—Agha Shahid Ali 17. “Irish Poetry”—Eavan Boland
5. “Candlelight”—Tony Hoagland 18. “Close Call”—X. J. Kennedy
6. “Love Poem with Toast”—Miller Williams 19. “Panty Raid”—Terri Ford
7. “On guard”—Marge Piercy 20. “Poem on the First Day of Spring”—Peter Cooley
8. “Cold War”—Sara London 21. “Redwing Blackbirds”—Fred Dings
9. “Song Beside a Sippy Cup”—Jenny Factor 22. “Still Winter (Spring)”—Charlie Smith
10. “A Gentleman Compares His Virtue to a Piece of 23. “In the Clear Long After”—Olena Kalytiak Davis
Jade”—Michael Ondaatje 24. “Spring”—Tracy K. Smith
11. “Misgivings”—William Matthews 25. “Last Shot”—Jon Veinberg
26. “The Figures”—Robert Dana 12. “An Interval of Five Tones Being the Dominant”
27. “IX (Looking through the Window: Psalm 121)” —Brooks Haxton
—Jacqueline Osherow 13. “Stories”—Philip Schultz
28. “Even Love”—Anne Marie Macari 14. “Marriage”—Richard Frost
29. “She Didn’t Mean to Do It”—Daisy Fried 15. “Harmonie du Soir”—Stephen Yenser
30. “BE-”—Sharon Bryan 16. “Chitchat with the Junior League Women”—Gary Soto
31. “The Book of Style”—Molly Bendall 17. “Don Juan (After He’d Consumed Tons of Lipstick)”
—Marin Sorescu
April
18. “Watching the Men Walk”—Nance Van Winckel
1. “Diagnosis”—Terence Winch 19. “Practice”—Meg Schoerke
2. “Bewilderment Is Love”—Lesley Dauer 20. “How to Listen”—Major Jackson
3. “Song”—William Logan 21. “House, Garden, Madness”—Cate Marvin
4. “Before a Departure in Spring”—W. S. Merwin 22. “Pentecost”—Dana Gioia
5. “Five Panels”—Mark Irwin 23. “Reflection”—Mark Turcotte
6. “Silver”—Jill Bialosky 24. “The River”—Raymond Carver
7. “Virtue”—Cynthia Huntington 25. “Flowers and Water”—Nancy Vieira Couto
8. “The Try-Outs”—Sharon Olds 26. “Glossolalia”—Angela Sorby
9. “Rusted Legacy”—Adrienne Rich 27. “On the Sixth Day the Word Is Taken from Me”
10. “At the Center”—Patricia Goedicke —Lisa Beskin
11. “Covered with Dew”—Ana Blandian 28. “Judy”—Paul Allen
12. “This Fog”—Alan Feldman 29. “The Musician Talks about ‘Process’”—Rita Dove
13. “You Are Right”—Cathryn Essinger 30. “Public Broadcast”—Philip Booth
14. “Luna Moth”—Carl Phillips 31. “Listener of Bats”—Laure-Anne Bosselaar
15. “The Accountant”—Michael Blumenthal
June
16. “Time to Hear Ourselves Think”—Dick Allen
17. “The Bather”—Charles Simic 1. “Selections fromVectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays”
18. “Each Moment a White Bull Steps Shining into the —James Richardson
World”—Jane Hirshfield 2. “A Man Gets Off Work Early”—Thomas Lux
19. “Flight”—Neal Bowers 3. “Bringing My Son to the Police Station to Be
20. “The Hayfork”—Henry Taylor Fingerprinted”—Shoshauna Shy
21. “Infidelities”—James McCorkle 4. “Tuesday, June 4, 1991”—Billy Collins
22. “Anniversary”—Joy Harjo 5. “My Wife’s Therapist”—Angelo Verga
23. “Madrigal”—Mary Leader 6. “Six, Sex, Say”—Barbara Hamby
24. “Triage”—Margot Schilpp 7. “Epithalamion for Sarah and Tony”—Jeff Mock
25. “Hybrid Magnolias in Late April”—Gibbons Ruark 8. “The Big White Dress”—Lisa Rosenberg
26. “Rehab”—Richard Katrovas 9. “Little Elegy”—Keith Althaus
27. “Out of Hiding”—Li-Young Lee 10. “Living Together”—Edgar Bowers
28. “Marriage Patois”—Megan Sexton 11. “Socrates”—Peter Johnson
29. “Star Apocrypha”—Christopher Buckley 12. “The Accomplice”—David Clewell
30. “North Point North”—John Koethe 13. “The Long Marriage”—Maxine Kumin
14. “They Said I Was a Crying Bride”—Albert Ríos
May
15. “Portrait”—David St. John
1. “The Cowboy and the Farmer Should Be Friends” 16. “The Deep Pool”—James Laughlin
—Robert Hershon 17. “2 Ways of Crossing the Creek”—Red Hawk
2. “Like”—Cathleen Calbert 18. “Shadblow”—Linda Pastan
3. “The Wave”—Virgil 19. “Landscape Over Zero”—Bei Dao
4. “For the Other World”—Ray González 20. “Bed”—Kendra Borgmann
5. “The Passionate World”—Anne Michaels 21. “Cognac”—Michael Waters
6. “A Sketch from the Campaign in the North”—Vijay 22. “Journey”—Eamon Grennan
Seshadri 23. “Pause, Pause”—Kevin Prufer
7. “Crossroads”—Forrest Hamer 24. “Conversation with the Sun Bittern”—Talvikki Ansel
8. “Pittsburgh, 1948, The Music Teacher”—Gerald Barrax 25. “Highway 5”—Fleda Brown
9. “The Right Meaning”—César Vallejo 26. “Ecosystem”—Anna Rabinowitz
10. “#2”—Lawrence Ferlinghetti 27. “Fiduciary”—Randall Mann
11. “Prayer to the Muse of Ordinary Life”—Kate Daniels 28. “Peonies”—Mark Wunderlich
29. “Giorni”—Edward Kleinschmidt Mayes 16. “Out-of-Body Experience”—Jim Crenner
30. “Seasonal Ramble”—Tony Towle 17. “Hearing Loss”—Christian Wiman
18. “To the Days Lost in August”—Deborah Cummins
July
19. “Letter to Ko”—D. Nurkse
1. “Jeep Cherokee”—Bruce A. Jacobs 20. “Bravura Lament”—Daniel Halpern
2. “Needlework”—Elaine Terranova 21. “Sky”—William Stafford
3. “History”—Joel Brouwer 22. “One Filament against the Firmament”
4. “Immigrant Picnic”—Gregory Djanikian —Matthea Harvey
5. “Lion’s Teeth”—Rebecca Hoogs 23. “Colophon”—Dean Young
6. “Seven Horizons”—Stephen Stepanchev 24. “Bees Stumble”—Molly McQuade
7. “Flight”—Floyd Skloot 25. “Maculate Beauty”—Karl Kirchwey
8. “I Used to Go to Church”—G. E. Patterson 26. “Poison, 1959”—David Wojahn
9. “Copyright Renewal Under the Texaco Star”—Jeffrey Dye 27. “I am peeling four pink grapefruit”—Natasha Sajé
10. “Pole Boat at Honey Island”—Sandra Alcosser 28. “Death by Fruit”—Kay Ryan
11. “American Manhood”—Robert Wrigley 29. “Aguacero”—Virgil Suárez
12. “‘Even Ornaments of Speech Are Forms of Deceit.’” 30. “Ant Farm”—Thylias Moss
—Ron Koertge 31. “Ancestored-Back Is the Overpresiding Spirit of This
13. “A Man of 1794”—Donald Justice Poem”—Albert Goldbarth
14. “Concrete Seascape”—William Harmon
September
15. “Aunt Lily and Frederick the Great”—Jean Nordhaus
16. “Siren”—Jonathan Galassi 1. “The Search for Baby Combover”—David Kirby
17. “Woman Holding a Fox”—David Yezzi 2. “Fiber Optics”—Joseph Millar
18. “Letter after a Year”—Donald Hall 3. “Job No. 75-14”—Clemens Starck
19. “Miss Chang Is Missing”—Adrienne Su 4. “Benefit Picnic, Cigar Makers’ Strike, August 1884”
20. “Larson Arson”—Margaret Benbow —Kevin Stein
21. “When My Car Broke Down”—John Brehm 5. “Sunday Shopping”—George A. Scarbrough
22. “In a City”—Zbigniew Herbert 6. “Influencing Factors”—Karen Helfrich
23. “Under the Big Top”—Ted Genoways 7. “Burial”—Rebecca McClanahan
24. “Fear And Fame”—Philip Levine 8. “Not for Burning”—Joyce Sutphen
25. “The Visit”—Wesley McNair 9. “Euripides’ Cave”—Elizabeth Seydel Morgan
26. “A Madeleine”—George Bilgere 10. “The Busses”—Frederick Morgan
27. “Trapeze”—Larissa Szporluk 11. “Arguments of Everlasting”—Brigit Pegeen Kelly
28. “Shall I Compare Thee?”—T. Alan Broughton 12. “At the Opening of Oak Grove Cemetery Bridge”
29. “What Can Stop This”—Donald Revell —Thomas Lynch
30. “Asylum”—Quan Barry 13. “Tryma”—David R. Slavitt
31. “Mansion Beach”—Elizabeth Spires 14. “Cartoon Physics, part 1”—Nick Flynn
15. “The Revised Versions”—Lawrence Raab
August
16. “Touch Me”—Stanley Kunitz
1. “Hostess”—Laura Kasischke 17. “The Dawn of the Navajo Woman”—Terry Blackhawk
2. “The Field”—Tom Sleigh 18. “Homage to Life”—Joseph Stroud
3. “Swept”—Hayden Carruth 19. “Paradise Consists of Forty-Nine Rotating Spheres”
4. “Sinking”—Mark Bibbins —Jane Mead
5. “Demas, in Love with This Present World”—Kristin Fogdall 20. “Skirts”—Gray Jacobik
6. “The Intrusion of Ovid”—Paul Guest 21. “Epith”—Carol Muske
7. “The time comes when you are facing him”—David 22. “Works and Days”—David Baker
Ignatow 23. “The Code”—Robert Morgan
8. “Elegy in August”—Robert McDowell 24. “Incident in a Filing Cupboard”—Roddy Lumsden
9. “Summer Afternoon in Solon, Iowa”—Stuart Dybek 25. “This Is Not Love’s Offering”—Shaun T. Griffin
10. “The Dancer”—Margaret Holley 26. “Mentor”—Timothy Murphy
11. “The Precision”—Linda Gregg 27. “Fix”—Alice Fulton
12. “Monsoon Song”—James Cordeiro 28. “One Petition Lofted into the Ginkgos”
13. “A Sunday Dinner”—David Bottoms —Gabriel Gudding
14. “bio / autography(or, 18th-century 29. “The Floating Rib”—Lucia Perillo
multiculturalism)”—Evie Shockley 30. “Last in before Dark”—Jason Sommer
15. “Syntax”—Wang Ping
October 18. “Daphne and Laura and So Forth”
1. “Humble Herb Is Rival to Prozac”—Rachel Hadas —Margaret Atwood
2. “A Deathplace”—L. E. Sissman 19. “November 19”—David Lehman
3. “Poetry Is the Art of Not Succeeding”—Joe Salerno 20. “Ballad”—Sonia Sanchez
4. “World Truffle”—Sarah Lindsay 21. “The Sausage Parade”—Martha Silano
5. “Sin”—Carol Frost 22. “The Music We Dance To”—Rebecca Seiferle
6. “The Prose Poem”—Campbell McGrath 23. “The Last Picture”—Philip Dacey
7. “A Mayan Astronomer in Hell’s Kitchen” 24. “In Hilo Hospital”—Joan Swift
—Martín Espada 25. “The God Who Loves You”—Carl Dennis
8. “Winged Snake Found on a Path”—Matthew Rohrer 26. “November 26, 1992: Thanksgiving at the Sea Ranch,
9. “Sleeping with Artemis”—Josh Bell Contemplating Metempsychosis”—Sandra M. Gilbert
10. “Psyche Revised”—Rhina P. Espaillat 27. “Famous Poems of the Past Explained”—Bin Ramke
11. “The Baby”—Rex Wilder 28. “A Few Words on the Soul”—Wislawa Szymborska
12. “The Clearing”—Richard Foerster 29. “The Sudden Tug of the Familiar”—Faye George
13. “The X Files”—Rafael Campo 30. “Coach Class Seats”—Charles Harper Webb
14. “Horses”—Henri Cole December
15. “Our Other Sister”—Jeffrey Harrison
16. “Book”—Robert Pinsky 1. “December 1, 1994”—Gerald Stern
17. “This Poem”—Barbara Jordan 2. “Well, You Needn’t”—Karen Volkman
18. “After”—Jeanne Marie Beaumont 3. “Umbra”—Dana Goodyear
19. “The Opposite of Nostalgia”—Eric Gamalinda 4. “My Test Market”—Rachel Loden
20. “A Star Is Born in the Eagle Nebula” 5. “In Particular”—Elena Karina Byrne
—Marcia Southwick 6. “A Feeling”—Robert Creeley
21. “II. San Fransisco”—Kate Light 7. “Vast Problem Still Obscure”—Siri von Reis
22. “Celan”—James Brasfield 8. “Clever and Poor”—V. Penelope Pelizzon
23. “The Bear on Main Street”—Dan Gerber 9. “The Oration”—Carolyn Kizer
24. “Flood”—Claudia Emerson 10. “Last Night”—Chryss Yost
25. “Death Stayed”—Terese Svoboda 11. “Elegy for Jane Kenyon (2)”—Jean Valentine
26. “Doubt”—Fanny Howe 12. “Bachelor Song”—Douglas Goetsch
27. “Sinister”—Forrest Gander 13. “You Could Have Been Me”—Belle Waring
28. “Prince of the Powers of the Air”—Debora Greger 14. “Natural”—Ellen Doré Watson
29. “The Dogs in Dutch Paintings”—David Graham 15. “What I Remember the Writers Telling Me When I Was
30. “An Ideal Woman”—Yehuda Amichai Young”—William Meredith
31. “Ghosts in the Stacks”—R. H. W. Dillard 16. “Olives”—Catharine Savage Brosman
17. “Mediterranean Cooking for Two”—Janet Holmes
November 18. “The Vines”—William Greenway
1. “Saints’ Logic”—Linda Gregerson 19. “American Pylons”—Kevin Durkin
2. “The Downtown Bus”—Wyatt Prunty 20. “Neanderthal, with Help from Cave and Bear, Invents
3. “The Prodigal Son considers a diplomatic career” the Flute”—David Citino
—Dionisio D. Martínez 21. “Her Purse, at the Winter Solstice”—Susan Hahn
4. “In the House”—Stephen Dunn 22. “Embertide in Advent”—David Middleton
5. “My Husband Discovers Poetry”—Diane Lockward 23. “The Unstrung Lyre”—Eric Pankey
6. “Dusk and the Wife”—A.V. Christie 24. “Entrance”—Rainer Maria Rilke
7. “My Other Life”—Peter Serchuk 25. “Processional”—James Merrill
8. “Dawn, With Cardinals”—Jeffrey Levine 26. “History”—Jennifer Michael Hecht
9. “A Misunderstanding”—Maggie Nelson 27. “Mother of Us All”—Cathy Song
10. “Voices”—F. D. Reeve 28. “Evening in the Country”—John Ashbery
11. “Across the River”—Brian Henry 29. “To Two of My Characters”—John Updike
12. “The Perch”—Galway Kinnell 30. “After the Poem Who Knows”—Alan Michael Parker
13. “A Man May Change”—Marvin Bell 31. “Learning the Angels”—Rennie McQuilkin
14. “Pieces”—Paul Lake
15. “Your Hands”—Marjorie Agosín 449. Credits
16. “On a Stanza by Rilke”—Thomas Swiss 465. Title Index
17. “Those Graves in Rome”—Larry Levis 468. Author Index
A c k n o w l ed g m en t s
After six years online, the poets, editors, publishers, and friends to whom we owe our gratitude are too
numerous to list here. Support and encouragement have come from poets, who have so generously
offered the gift of their poems as well as their time and energy for a growing variety of special editorial
features at Poetry Daily; from editors and publishers, whose position to our editorial windward has
insured our clear sailing; and from friends, some of whom we see every day and many more we have met
only online, all of whose encouragement has been daily. Here, to stand for these many friends (and fam-
ily), are just a few of our early stalwarts: Barbie Selby, Rob Anderson, Joseph Parisi, Helen Lothrop
Klaviter, Stephen Young, Jill Bialosky, Peter Davison, Wen Stephenson, R. T. Smith, Lynn Leech, Judith
Moore, Jim Gibson, Laura Horn, Jeff Coughter, Ed Lowry, Luther Gore, Angelo Verga, Dana Gioia, Rita
Dove, Marion K. Stocking, Barbara Hamby, David Kirby, Billy Collins, Robert Pinsky, Don Lee, Steve Turner,
Bob Hicok, Susan Hahn, Peg Peoples, April Ossmann, Albert Goldbarth, David Lehman, James Reiss, J. D.
McClatchy, Peter Johnson, Brian Henry, Jeffrey Levine, Martha Rhodes, Richard Foerster, Sarah Gorham,
David Graham, Michael Chitwood, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, David Yezzi, Roger Lathrop, C. Dale Young, A. E.
Stallings, David Baker, David H. Lynn, Jeffrey Shotts, Rebecca Wolff, Jessie Lendennie, Dick Allen, Steve
Boller. Heartfelt thanks to these and so many more.
viii~ Poetry Daily
I n t r o d u c t i o n
Are you reading this while standing in front of the poetry shelf of your local bookstore or library, won-
dering what contemporary poetry might be worth exploring? Have you had the experience of coming
upon forgotten poems you’d clipped from The New Yorkeror The Atlantic, and of wishing that poetry
could be a part of your life everyday? Or have you ever left the magazine section of your bookstore after
looking there in vain for the one or two literary journals you’ve heard of, in the hope of finding at least a
small sample of what’s new in contemporary poetry?
If any of these things are true, or if you are looking for a window from which you can see for yourself
the variety of what is happening in contemporary poetry, this book is for you. And, if you are a poet your-
self, in need of a means to refresh your sense of the heartening diversity and vitality of contemporary
poetry, Poetry Daily is for you too.
In 1997, when we launched Poetry Daily (www.poems.com), our anthology of contemporary poetry
published every day on the Web, it sometimes seemed to us that secret handshakes were the only way
to find other readers of contemporary poetry, and that praying for a rare miracle—the appearance of a
review of a book of poetry (certainly by a poet both still alive and not carrying the seal of approval of the
Nobel Committee) in a newspaper or magazine—was the only chance of discovering new poetry. But
from the first day, Poetry Daily has been proof that the late, lamented “literate reading public” is not just
part of a legendary past, but is real, active, very large, and growing: at this writing as many as thirty thou-
sand readers visit Poetry Daily on a given day to read a poem selected from a newly released book or
magazine or to catch up on the latest news and reviews from the world of poetry. And the ranks of our
readers grow daily.
It has been more than ten years since Dana Gioia, poet, critic, and current Chairman of the National
Endowment for the Arts, in his now famous Atlanticessay “Can Poetry Matter?” issued his challenge to
the poetry community to reclaim its ancient position in society, not by “dumbing down” poetry, but by
making it literally more accessible; not by draining the art from poetry so as to make it somehow “eas-
ier,” but simply by making the art available to everyone—a part, once again, of everyday life.
This is the challenge we took up in launching Poetry Daily online—to help make contemporary poetry
available to anyone, anywhere, every day. The Internet has become a complex place since we began, but
its greatest virtue is still the same one promised at the outset: free, democratic access. The goal of our
website is to help you make poetry a vital part of your daily life by providing you with a new poem each
day selected from the latest books and journal issues published in English. Rather than attempt to sup-
plant the work of our betters in poetry publishing, our purpose is to lead you to them. Our poems come
from large publishers and small—you’ll find selections from well known commercial publishers like W. W.
Norton & Company and Houghton Mifflin, and long-established university presses like the University of
Chicago Press and LSU Press; but you’ll also find poems selected from new, independent presses, such
as Tupelo Press and even chapbook publishers, like Slapering Hol Press. You’ll find the oldest poetry and
literary journals represented, like Poetrymagazine, The Kenyon Review, and Shenandoah, but also the
most recent (and sometimes ephemeral) magazines and journals, such as FENCE,jubilat, and The Hat.
poems.com ~ ix