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! 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!

Edge of September
by
Jeanie Tomasko

Again this year it comes:
the shift in the wind
that certain slant of sun
the sudden red of sumac.

Out at the lake
birdsong is less urgent,
the young can feed themselves.
In a few days
something like light
will tug on wings.

I am at home with
the downside of summer.
I take stock of the woodpile.
Night comes earlier. The space
between cricket chirps, longer.
I’ve stopped coloring my hair.

My husband fingers the gray
as if learning a tenderness.

This poem first appeared in Secondwind.
Used here with the author’s permission.

Jeanie Tomasko is a writer and artist enjoying retirement after a long nursing career. When she is not being visited by imaginary foxes, she can be found throwing balls to her dog. Her latest chapbook, The Beginning of the Account of the Reading Fox in the Night, was published in 2024 by Bottlecap Press. Jeannie and her husband divide their time between Southern Wisconsin and a cabin in Northern Wisconsin in a county with no stoplights. See more of her books and learn more about Jeanie at www.JeanieTomasko.com.

wendy morton:
the space between cricket chirps. How she listens, sees. Wonderful.
Posted 09/16/2011 09:11 AM

Linda Lee (Konichek):
"...something like light will tug on wings." Beautiful images and feeling, love this poem. Thanks, Jeanie.
Posted 09/16/2011 09:02 AM

KevinArnold:
The ending, easing adeptly into the personal, brings the poem home for me.
Posted 09/16/2011 08:57 AM

ed werstein:
Excellent, Jeanie.
Posted 09/16/2011 08:30 AM

mimi:
a sweet melancholy...beautiful poem, friend Jeanie! Sharon A.
Posted 09/16/2011 08:09 AM

tannerlynne:
"The space between cricket chirps, longer." Yes!
Posted 09/16/2011 06:34 AM

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