The Daily Mirror

by David Lehman

Book Overview

Following in the footsteps of such poets as Emily Dickinson, William Stafford, and Frank O'Hara, David Lehman began writing a poem a day in 1996 and found the experience so rewarding that he continued for the next two years. During that time, some of these poems appeared in various journals and on Web sites, including The Poetry Daily site, which ran thirty of Lehman's poems in as many days throughout the month of April 1998.
For The...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684864932
• ISBN13: 9780684864938
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Poem A Day

A magnificent collection of poems -- each one a shiny little jewel! The world comes alive through date references, NYC locales, and the fertile imagination of David Lehman! Who do YOU see in the Daily Mirror?

The Universal Found in the Verse of Particulars

The Daily Mirror is David Lehman's writing at its finest. So many of the poems move as water falling and turning, fluid and full of surprise. His sense of the poetic line and his innovative use punctuation (almost none) blossom into moments that hold and propel the reader. He uses the timing of poetry in concord with the pace of a life moving and moved by people, images, and ideas. The world of particulars in his verse captures a time (our time) that the reader will want to return to again and again. These poems read like a treasure hunt that never ends. Everyone will have their favorite day in this book of daily poems.

Absolutely fantastic!

I am not surprised that "The Daily Mirror" is fantastic. I have yet to meet a poem by David Lehman that I don't like. That being said, I'm still deeply pleased by how much I like this book. These poems are so full of joie de vivre that every time I read one I find myself smiling. The poems in "The Daily Mirror" are terrific in part because of their immediacy. As daily poems they comprise a kind of poetic journal; they are crafted out of the everyday. What's great is that they also transcend the mundane; they're made of ordinary stuff, but they're *poems*, with the heightened consciousness and precise language that poems require. These poems are witty and intelligent and creative and funny and sad. I recommend them highly.