Our Purpose

In 2001, poet Jayne Jaudon Ferrer accepted a challenge from her brother and brother-in-law to prove that there were poems out there that these decidedly non-poetry fans would actually enjoy reading.

During National Poetry Month (April) that year, Jayne sent a daily e-mail to a small group of family and friends, calling it her "Scintillating Springtime Parade of Poetry." By the end of the 30-day onslaught, the two men grudgingly conceded that they had actually enjoyed many of the poems they'd read . Response to the poems was so positive, in fact, that the parade "spectators" asked Jayne to do another parade the following year. Thus began a tradition as, every April for nearly ten years, Jayne selected and e-mailed thirty days' worth of poems to a list that grew a bit larger each year. While there were a few poets and poetry lovers on board, most on the list were people who thought poetry was a waste of time and signed up out of curiousity, allegiance to Jayne, or the hope that they could claim, "Booooooooring!" when it was all over. Instead, over the years, the skeptics grew more and more receptive as they discovered poems that were intriguing, entertaining, or downright fun. April after April, sharing the work of both classic and contemporary poets, Jayne proved irrefutably that poetry could be outrageous, inspiring, hilarious, heartbreaking, sobering, surprising, and anything but boring.

Your Daily Poem was born when an insistent group of Poetry Parade subscribers declared thirty days of poetry was not enough. They pleaded with Jayne to make the Parade a daily, rather than yearly, event. Leery of the time and expense of undertaking such a daunting project, but thrilled at the interest, Jayne launched www.YourDailyPoem.com in June 2009 with a single goal: to share the pleasure and diversity of poetry with those who are doubtful about its value.

Certainly you will like some poems more than others, just as you like certain sports teams more than others, or different singers or bands more than others. This is because we all have different tastes, and this is what keeps life interesting. Your Daily Poem simply hopes to add a bit more interest to your life--in the form of poetry. We hope you'll spend time exploring the marvelous assortment of poems here, checking out the resources provided, and learning about poets and poetry events in your area. You might even decide to give a gift of poetry, which will benefit both your recipient and our site.

Subscribers to Your Daily Poem receive a poem via e-mail daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly (during April), along with a bit of personal commentary from Jayne. There's no cost to subscribe, though donations are welcome, and we welcome your interaction and feedback through the comment box under each poem or on our Open Mic page.

Thank you for visiting, and remember: a poem a day keeps the doldrums away!