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!

Mt. St. Helens: Inside the Blast Zone
by
Mark Thalman

Decimated by five hundred Hiroshimas,
the forest is gone . . .

Wherever I step,
ash, finer than ground glass, roils up . . .

In this graveyard, there is not a branch
for the wind to ruffle.

There are more downed trees
than the eye can count,

more logs in Spirit Lake
than any beaver could possibly dream.

Hemlock, spruce, and fir, stripped of bark, gray as driftwood,
lie on hillsides like quills on a porcupine’s back.

In gullies, where snow shrouds melt, lichen sprout.
If enough dust blows away, fireweed burrows out.

I leave footprints
like Armstrong did on the moon.

At my feet, a spider, the size of an asterisk,
crawls over sand . . .

to begin again
start with small things.

This poem first appeared in American Land Forum and in Eighty on the Eighties: A Decade’s History in Verse (Ashland Poetry Press).
Used here with the author’s permission.

Mark Thalman, editor of poetry.us.com and author of Catching the Limit (Fairweather Books), has been widely published for four decades. He received his MFA from the University of Oregon, and is retired after teaching English in public schools for 32 years. Mark, also an artist who enjoys painting wildlife scenes with acrylics, lives in Forest Grove, Oregon. Learn more about him at www.markthalman.com.

Eiken:
I found this very moving with the decimation in the opening lines and beginning again, with the small things in the final lines. There is so much hope in those last lines, so inspiring. Thank you for such a wonderful read. Maire
Posted 05/18/2011 12:49 PM

Nabby Dog:
What strikes me first is the gorgeous craft of this poem. Truly these are words of a master poet and I am grateful for the pleasure such inspired use of language brings. The lasting impression, however, comes from the mature wisdom of the poem and its declarations about how things end and how things begin again. What a wonderful addition to the already distinguished canon of poetry on this site.
Posted 05/18/2011 09:57 AM

dotief@comcast.net:
I love this very powerful poem. The last line is perfect, and the similes and images leading to it are are wonderful.
Posted 05/18/2011 07:42 AM

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