A Poem to Read Aloud Every Day of the Year

by Liz Ison

A beautifully packaged anthology of poems from around the world and throughout history, all especially selected for reading aloud, with one glorious poem for every day of the year.

Everyone benefits from reading aloud, whether it’s a bedtime story with Dad or Granny, an intimate moment with a loved one, or a performance to a group of people. Both the reader and the listener gain a far greater understanding of the poem, its subject matter, and the mood the poet wants to convey—the words hit us more powerfully and meaningfully. And what’s more, it’s good for our mindfully reading aloud has been proven to help with relaxation, alongside improvements in working memory, vocabulary acquisition, and communication skills.

With a wide and diverse range of poets including the fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz and Mary Oliver in the twenty-first century, old favorites such as Emily Dickinson and more recent voices such as Lemn Sissay, the obvious classics such as Wordsworth and slightly more offbeat fare like Spike Milligan, there’s something for everyone in this poems that are funny, sad, consoling, uplifting, and everything in between.

Whether you’re a teacher enthralling a class of children or a carer entertaining a group of pensioners, if you’re looking for a reading for your wedding or a powerful piece for a performance or poetry slam, you’ll find everything you need here. It’s the perfect book to dip into daily to share a poem with anyone, everyone, or even just yourself, to hear the true beauty and rhythm of words and the magic they can weave.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

488 pages, Hardcover

Published October 17, 2023

Reviews

[Clare Canavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book with a superior collection of poetry for every day of the year. Coffee and a poem to read at breakfast to set me up for the day is my idea of bliss. A perfect gift 📚

[Sarah Worland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this all throughout 2024. It was a gift. Poetry does something good for our souls!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the concept of this book! Most of these are fun to read out loud, and I started keeping little colored markers on all of my favorite poems throughout the year. Not all of them were ones I would voluntarily read again though, but I guess that's a me problem. I can only take so many slightly different descriptions of nature apparently, but I'm sure someone else would appreciate those poems.

I started to notice that many of the poets in the volume only lived to their 30s though, and that made me sad, especially since many of those were the ones I liked the most. They felt deeply and translated it into their written word. Many of the wartime poems or things written in times of transition were the ones that stuck with me.

My favorite, which I marked especially, was "May the Road Rise Up to Meet You," an old Gaelic blessing I had only heard snippets of before. This was a pretty cool book that I'll probably flip through here and there now that I've read through it all.

[Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty book with nice thick pages and good font. 2 stars because I think it's just not the right anthology for me personally. I only tabbed about 25 out of 365 to reread. That's just under 7%. It's too thick a book to keep on my shelves for just 7%.

[Stephanie Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful collection of poems and interesting idea to have one for each day

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

We Love this book. Beautifully presented and full of great poetry. Some old favourites but also several I'd never come across. Several U.S. verses featured alongside UK poets.

[Margie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book with familiar, classic poetry, as well as poems I have never previously read. Reading these poems out loud has given me new insights into many of them.