A Poet for Every Day of the Year

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I've loved delving into this book to enjoy a poem every day - this book has become part of my daily routine over the last year! One of the absolute pleasures here is the attention to more marginalised poets such as those from the LGBTQIA+ community so that A Poet for Every Day of the Year feels inclusive and engaging. I listened to this as an audio book I had borrowed from the library and would listen to a few poems each day. The Contents of A Poet for Every Day of the Year list the poem and poet for each calendar day although I prefer not to look at that properly until next year when I’ve enjoyed a daily surprise from the book. This soul-enhancing book is the perfect gift that will last the whole year, with a little bit of magic to read every day.

I confess I haven’t read the whole book yet as I am savouring the dated poems and poets each night so that this is a gift of a book that will last me the entire year. The day-to-day format of the anthology invites readers to make poetry a part of their daily routine, and makes sure that they discover something inspirational, life affirming, provocative, moving or entertaining each and every day. dh A Poem For Every Day of the Year is a magnificent collection of 366 poems compiled by Allie Esiri, one to share on every day of the year.He never managed to do this himself, and no other edition exists which has such a broad range, drawing from first to last of his prize-winning collections. This pocket-sized book presents the most essential poems in his dispensary: those which, again and again, have really shown themselves to work. Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with all the family throughout the year, it is bursting at the seams with familiar favourites and exciting new discoveries. However, one minor point is that there was some overlap with 'A Poem for Every Night of the Year', which I think should've been avoided, considering it's the same editor publishing these anthologies. Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti and Emily Bronte sit alongside Roger McGough, Wendy Cope, Imtiaz Dharker, Leonard Cohen, Sylvia Plath and Ocean Vuong.

I also had fun with the index of first lines at the end of A Poet for Every Day of the Year, reading them aloud like performance poetry and seeing if they would work as found poems in their own right! What is particularly enjoyable about this book is its layout providing detail about the poet such as the time they lived in making it a wonderful collection to dip into and I would thoroughly recommend adding it to any book lovers collection. Seamus Heaney had the idea to form a personal selection of poems from across the entire arc of his writing life, small yet comprehensive enough to serve as an introduction for all comers.Sometimes I did feel a few of the poems were overly long with too much description but most were short and easy to read. A great habit to be cultivated throughout a year, for once if you want to broaden yourselves in poetry and for other to pick up books in general mire often. I loved it unreservedly and it’s one of my books of the year because it brings human connection and joy to the reader. Some offer insightful biographical details or key historical context, while others may provide quirky, humorous anecdotes. I loved to explore different poets / authors, of whome I already heard before or who I otherwise would have never known, who are dead or alive, young and old, writting on topics I find fascinating or I couldn’t care less about.

I bought this book as I have a weakness for beautiful poetry books and this does not disappoint although it is difficult to savor one poem a day. This year has been a very busy and at times stressful year so reading a poem every day has helped me to cope and put me in a good place at the beginning of each day. There is balm for the soul, fire for the belly, a cooling compress for the fevered brow, solace for the wounded, an arm around the lonely shoulder - the whole collection is a matchless compound of hug, tonic and kiss' Stephen FrySometimes only a poem will do. I’m not really a fan of the format; each piece of information could have been in separate lines or columns. We’re currently reading “A poem for every day of the year”, and we’ve enjoyed it so much, have said that we need to find a good next book to keep this habit going.This anthology has so much to offer and every time I think about it next to the bed ready for me to read last thing at night it brings happiness and a smile to my face.