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! Visit our home page every day to see a different poem.

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!

Hal Swift (1928 - 2016) was born in Speedway City, Indiana, on the 25th anniversary of the Wright brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where, as a teenager, Hal learned to play a bass fiddle. He worked with local cowboy musicians such as Marty Robbins, and played with the Phoenix Concert Orchestra. He went on to become a popular radio host and was inducted into the Nevada Broadcast Association Hall of Fame after a 50-year career. That career took a different direction, briefly, while Hal served in the U.S. Navy as a Morse code radio operator. Hal's diverse interests included martial arts, building model ships and airplanes, cartooning, semantics and, of course, writing. Learn more about him here.

Buy Now