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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

I begin the day thinking

—after Freda Epum

the day could do without
me. The ice outside glitters around
my car’s tires like a pageant
dress. Only digital utterances between
myself and the world for at least
a week. The last time he visited, my friend
noted the lack of natural light
in my downstairs apartment, 
the posthumous-grey bleeding into
the mood. Aught of light
in the bedroom due to the blackout
curtains. But sometimes,
the day heckles, with its high-
bitch sun and melting snow. Some
days, I lay in the morgue
of darkness, hyper-alone,
and the sunlight, so audacious, paints
the color back onto my cheeks. 

 

 

Copyright © 2025 by Taylor Byas. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 1, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Taylor Byas

Taylor Byas
Courtesy of Taylor Byas
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Randall Mann is the Guest Editor of August. Read or listen to a Q&A with Mann about his curatorial process, and learn more about the 2025 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
Death by Wind (audio only) Gerald Stern
A Short Note to My Very Critical and Well-Beloved Friends and Comrades June Jordan
He Made Me Sing Gertrude P. McBrown
God of the Distances, Hear Us Ameen Rihani
Record Katrina Vandenberg
Song of the Open Road, 13 Walt Whitman
If You Should Go Countee Cullen
George Gray Edgar Lee Masters
Mamoyi Kendel Hippolyte
The Uses of Distortion Caroline Crumpacker

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