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Poem-a-Day

The only daily poetry series publishing new work by today’s poets.

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Poem-a-day

A Song [I was want]

I was want
ing the most
bare language
threaded bare
ly there a bar
on in english
everywhere I
went I langu
ished in a war
rent of a lang
uage I did or
did not want
once in ame
rica there w
as a language
we were guilt
y I spoke it y
ou were there

Copyright © 2026 by Jos Charles. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 25, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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Jos Charles

Jos Charles
Photo credit: Sergio de la Torre
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About Poem-a-Day

Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Sam Sax is the Guest Editor for June. Read or listen to a Q&A with Sax about their curatorial process, and learn more about the 2026 Guest Editors. Support Poem-a-Day.  

If you have any questions about Poem-a-Day, visit our Poem-a-Day FAQ.

Previous Poems

Title Author Date
To Keep the Memory of Charlotte Forten Grimké Angelina Weld Grimké 08/24/2019
Divagar Mónica de la Torre 08/23/2019
My Mother and Lucille Clifton Have Tea Parneshia Jones 08/22/2019
A Fourteen-Line Poem on Heteronymic Julie Carr 08/21/2019
Shikwah Khaled Mattawa 08/20/2019
When I Look at Pictures Farid Matuk 08/19/2019
On the Sale By Auction of Keats' Love Letters Oscar Wilde 08/18/2019
Dreams Paul Laurence Dunbar 08/17/2019
Had the Vines Budded, Were the Pomegranates in Bloom S. Brook Corfman 08/16/2019
Hot Tub Miguel Murphy 08/15/2019

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