Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? I’ve always liked taking stock of where I am and where we are as a family. Then, taking the opportunity to think about what’s been going well and what I’d like to do differently.
Interestingly, I was listening to a podcast this week about how a New Year’s Resolution doesn’t necessarily have to add to our every increasing to do lists but we could choose to not do something. I like the thought of this. However, one thing I wouldn’t miss is A Poem a Day!
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I’d been reading lots about habits and how long it takes to form a new habit. Accordingly, at the end of 2021, I decided I wanted to add a habit that would bring a little calm and joy to my day. I decided my new habit for 2022 would be to read a poem a day. You can find what I’ve been reading in December in this blog post – A Poem A Day in December for the Family. In 2023 we carried on this habit and we’re excited for 2024 and all the poetry we will get to enjoy. I’ve given this post a little update (December 2023) with a few new poetry recommendations.
Make a New Habit – Read A Poem A Day
It’s one of the best habits I’ve ever started and is now firmly embedded into my day. Sometimes I read a poem on my own, sometimes I read a poem with my daughter Floss, other times I’ll tell a friend or family member that they MUST read a poem I’ve read.
Floss is developing a love of poetry too and I’ll often record me reading poetry for her to listening to on one of her audio players. We have a Tonie Box and a Yoto Player. If you’d like to find out more about audio players head to my blog post here.
You don’t need to wait until the new year, you can start a habit to read a poem a day today. After reading a poem a day for almost two years I’ve read a very varied diet of poetry. On occasion I’ve been known to binge and do several poems in a day – there’s been a lot of poetry!
To start I only really read children’s poetry as it was more familiar from when I was teaching. Now I’ve begun to read a full range. Although, I have to say, I still adore children’s poetry – especially illustrated children’s poetry.
A Poem a Day through the Year
I’m compiling a list of the poems I am reading each day and grouping them by month. However, lots of the poems would be suitable for any month. Access the posts for particular months below. You can find December and January poetry reads below. I’ll hope to add more months for 2024.
Books That Give A Poem A Day
If you’re new to poetry and want to get into the habit of reading a poem a day then I would highly recommend a book that gives you a poem for each day.
Floss and I truly adore the Nosy Crow nature and animal inspired anthologies. They give you a poem for each day of the year so you can form your new habit with either of these titles.
I Am The Seed That Grew The Tree was the first in the series. It’s sumptuously illustrated and has a nature poem for each and every day of the year.
Following along in 2020 was the stunning release of Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright! If you have an animal lover this is the collection for them; an animal poem for every day of the year.
There have since been two further installments including And Everything Will Be Glad to See You. A perfect collection of poetry written by women and girls.
The latest addition to the collection we purchased Floss for Christmas – A Whale of a Time. It’s an exceptional collection of funny poems – one for each day of the year. This is going to be our main poetry book for 2024 and add in others along the way.
On my wish list is A Poem for Every Day of the Year – another way to start your poem a day habit. Macmillan Children’s Books do several others in this series. We have A Poem for Every Day of Autumn and A Poem for Every Day of Winter that we love. You can find the whole collection here.
Once you’ve dipped your toe in the poetry waters I hope you’ll love it as much as I do. That’s where the fun starts finding new poetry and learning what are your favourites.
Free Poetry
You can get a weekly poetry dose into your inbox from Pan Macmillan; sign up to their newsletter here. Not every poem I love but it’s great to be exposed to poets I’ve not come across before.
The Children’s Poetry Archive is a great resource for children’s poetry. The poems are written and also recorded so you can listen to them.
The Poetry Foundation gives a poem a day that you can access here.
More Poetry Recommendations
Smile Out Loud by Joseph Coelho and illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett
A book that I featured in Bookworm Buzz this year is Smile Out Loud. It’s a fabulous, vibrant collection of poems by Joseph Coelho. You can find my review here.
When Bees Flew in for Breakfast by Nigel Tetley
When Bees Flew in for Breakfast by Nigel Tetley is one of my favourite poetry reads this year. It’s a collection designed for teenagers yet I feel there is something for everyone.
You can find my review and why I thought it was brilliant in my blog post here.
The Lost Spells by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris
Oh gosh it’s a truly spell binding collection. The symbiotic dynamic between Rob and Jackie is magnetic and draws you into their world of wonder. My daughter still loves listening to these ‘spells’. She’s now 6 but we got the book when she was 4.
Rob MacFarlane says he calls them spells as he’s not a poet – he knows poets and he can’t write poetry. However he chooses to describe himself he is a true wizard of words casting his spell together with soul companion of nature Jackie. A book for everyone. If you haven’t already listened to The Lost Words Blessing – a sung version of one of their poems from the first book The Lost Words do have a listen from the video below. I’m in love. Published by Penguin. I first featured this book in my Autumn book recommendations post here.
I’ll be adding more poetry recommendations here so feel free to pop back and see what new poetry we’ve been discovering.