Poem a Day: A Wide Range of Classic and Modern Poems

The Original Poem a Day has sold more than fifty thousand copies and is still going strong. It is a perennial gift-giving favorite and a word-of-mouth sensation among those who want poetry to be a greater presence in their lives. Like its predecessor, Poem a Day, Volume 2 offers a verse for each day of the year along with brief, often amusing, always interesting anecdotes about the poets and their poems. Laurie Sheck, a prize-winning poet in her own right, carries on the Poem a Day tradition by selecting a wide range of great poems that are short enough to memorize, substantive enough to be read again and again, and accessible enough to be enjoyed and appreciated by a wide readership. On the whole, Poem a Day, Volume 2 is a bit more modern than the original collection, a bit more international. Included are Elizabeth Bishop, Langston Hughes, Czeslaw Misloz, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, William Shakespeare, Emily Bronte, Rumi, Bertolt Brecht, Henry David Thoreau, Lewis Carroll, Yusef Komunyaaka, Octavio Paz, Adrienne Rich, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Walt Whitman, Rudyard Kipling, Sharon Olds, Seamus Heaney, Gary Snyder, Sylvia Plath, Tru Vu . . . the varied list goes on and on. Every day is different, a surprise, and an adventure led by a knowledgeable guide whose love of all good verse shines through on every page.

Laurie Sheck is the author of four books of poetry. The Willow Grove (Knopf, 1998) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent collection is Black Series (Knopf, 2001). Her work appears widely in such journals and magazines as the New Yorker, Kenyon Review, and Boston Review. She has been a member of the creative writing faculty at Princeton University and currently teaches in the M.F.A. program at the New School. She lives in New York City.