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!

Poetry Night, First Grade
by
Eric Heller

There you are in a folding chair
watching your daughter, who’s six
climb the stairs to face the audience
on poetry night. Lovely and slender
she moves towards the mike
the room hushed;
parents whisper and sigh
at her missing front teeth
when she starts to read. Six lines
that’s all it takes
and for one minute on a Tuesday night
your daughter reads her poem
and when she smiles at you from across the stage
all the tangled strings of your life
neatly fold like fingers into a contented lap
and everything makes perfect sense.

This poem first appeared in US 1 Worksheets (Vol 55, 2010).
Used here with the author's permission.

Eric Heller has been a teacher, technical writer, web designer, technical writer, and marketing director. His poems have appeared in US1 Worksheets, ONE ART, Delaware Valley Poets, and elsewhere, and he has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. He can be found online, trying to make sense, he says, "of this crazy, beautiful world," at www.eric-heller.net.

EstherJ:
So sweet!
Posted 10/12/2025 10:11 AM

Darrell Arnold:
Emotional.
Posted 10/12/2025 08:22 AM

nancy_scott:
Congratulations. This poem gets even better on rereading.
Posted 10/12/2010 11:21 AM

dotief@comcast.net:
Wonderful use of simile! Wonderful imagery!
Posted 10/12/2010 08:21 AM

Buckner14:
Those final three lines--like an Amen!
Posted 10/12/2010 07:44 AM

Gary Busha:
Simple. Good. Clear. -GB
Posted 10/12/2010 04:24 AM

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