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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

[ ]

—after Frank O’Hara and Katy Porter

Dear, I wished you heavens.
If not heavens, earths.
And if a little hell, I prayed the tears
I hid as wet, incandescent smiles
were an ocean on brimstone.
You are one of one.
I never said: Good morning, my heart
but I was the indigo in your hair.
I was keeping time when you danced.
I was stillness and tremor,
break and breach, 
your pen and your cane.
No, I never said: I’m in love with you. 
I said: I dreamed of a child
with your eyes, with your hands.
You are one of one. 
The unrenounceable.
Do not fear death.
You’ll be beautiful 
in the grave.
You’ll be beautiful 
in the Judgment line,
the sun recounting sins 
against our siblings for eons. 
And the shadow I cast
standing outside your garden
will be our cover. 
Dear, I was never lonely. 
I was never cold. 
I was wreathing our canopy.
Some day you’ll love Ladan Osman.
After the hours. After all light.

Copyright © 2026 by Ladan Osman. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 23, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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Ladan Osman

Ladan Osman
Photo credit: Beowulf Sheehan
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Chris Abani is the Guest Editor for February. Read or listen to a Q&A with Abani 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
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
The Second Beautiful Harvest Dante Micheaux 08/14/2019

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