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!

September
by
Sally Bliumis-Dunn

Only a few red and yellow
patches of leaves --
faintest edge

of cold coming through;
summer wearing out

like a pair of old jeans ?
hiss of school bus braking.

You're both in college now,
and school is long ago for me.

But isn't there always
the circling back ?

more than remembering,
I can almost see

the flat- ended yellow pencils
ready to be sharpened,

stiff loops of laces
on brand- new shoes,

faces of classmates,
changed, slightly unfamiliar

after long, separate summers.

I remember feeling
time fall back
from the soft green blur
of summer into a circle

on the black- rimmed clock
with its jumpy red minute hand

on the wall above
our classroom door.

From Second Skin (Wind Publications, November 2010)
Used with the author's permission.

Sally Bliumis-Dunn teaches, is Associate Editor-at-Large and features writer for PLUME, and teaches a Personal Essay course at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Her poems have been published in a long list of distinguished journals and, in 2002, she was a finalist for the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize. Sally is the author of four books; learn more about her here.

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anncaron:
Thank you, Sally - I think I had the same clock in the classroom. Beautiful. Ann Caron
Posted 10/02/2010 09:35 AM

Julianne Carlile:
This poem really brings back memories for me. Thank you!
Posted 09/30/2010 07:13 AM

Nabby Dog:
This is a vivid poem with wonderful specific details. It evokes a powerful time in the past but never slips into sentimentality.
Posted 09/30/2010 05:37 AM

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