Your Daily Poem

This site exists for one purpose only: to help dispel the ugly and absolutely untrue myth that poetry is boring. Granted, a lot of poetry is boring, but you won't find it here. At Your Daily Poem, you'll find poetry that is touching, funny, provocative, inspiring, uplifting, and surprising. It may punch you in the gut, it may bring tears to your eyes, it may make you laugh out loud, but it most assuredly will not bore you!

Poetry on YDP—by poets living and long dead, famous to completely unknown--is specially selected for accessibility and appeal. Thanks so much for visiting—and remember: a poem a day keeps the doldrums away!

A Good Place to Start
by
Linda Crosfield

big old bird, pelican belly-beak stuffed
with passengers who want want want
she’s in the galley, loading the trolley
for her third trip down the aisle
small stain on her sleeve
gravy, perhaps, from the filet of steer
or juice from the unremarkable chicken
or fish
a few brave souls choose fish
blackened as if someone tried to cauterize it
they’re going on an adventure
and the fish looks like a good place to start

she sits down long enough to bolt her own meal
thinks about the outfit she’s making
her daughter for the school play
how the cat seems to be getting better
whether she’ll stay with her man

somewhere over the Grand Canyon
she collects wilted salads and drippy teapots
tells the guy in 15C to stay in his seat
’cause it’s going to get bumpy

This poem first appearerd in The Minnesota Review (Issue 68, 2007)
and was a finalist for the "Being At Work" contest.
Used here with the author’s permission.

Linda Crosfield lived in Ottawa, Windsor, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver before returning to the Kootenays where she was born. She now lives in Nelson, in southeast British Columbia. Linda's poems appear in a variety of literary magazines, chapbooks, and anthologies. As overseer of her micro-press, Nose in Book Publishing, she produces chapbooks and handmade journals.

judith gray:
What a wicked sense of humour!..... I've had the unremarkable chicken. Congrats. j
Posted 05/02/2011 11:17 AM

wendy morton:
this is a poem to read twice to catch its artful humour and compassion.
Posted 05/01/2011 11:16 AM

Reganz:
A good place to start indeed! A great way to start a work-day Sunday. Thanks Linda.
Posted 05/01/2011 09:44 AM

Joe Sottile:
Good one: "filet of steer"! I can just taste the fish, too! Bravo!
Posted 05/01/2011 09:19 AM

Jo:
What a fun way to enter the month of May. I laughed all the way through the poem. Thanks Linda.
Posted 05/01/2011 08:37 AM

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