✨ The Very First Poem

What was the very first poem we published—almost 12 years ago?

On May 5, 2011, we published our very first poem in a brand new inbox delivery, Every Day Poems.

We were still learning about what it takes to run a daily poem publication. We hadn’t yet experienced the complexities of asking for poem permissions. We began with what we had on hand. A poem from our founder, L.L. Barkat. :)

Rider

There is this moment
when your heart sinks
out there on the mesa.
You thought there’d be a river
just around this corner.
Maybe there used to be, you think,
noting a snake-like depression
that seems to go on forever,
past the horizon, down towards Mexico
or to some kind of ruins.
You pull back hard on the reins,
and the skin of your chestnut mare
shivers and flicks.
She’s about to rear, you know the feeling;
this is what she does
when she senses your fear.
But you are not going to die out here.
You are not going to let her
die out here.
A clap to her side,
and a leather strip tossed right
tells her it’s okay.
You'll ride towards another river.
You always have, you always will.
She knew that. She just wanted you 
to remember.

— L.L. Barkat, author of Earth to Poetry

Photo by Mike Tungate, via Flickr.