Your Daily Poem launched in June 2009 with a single goal: to share the pleasure of poetry with those who may not have had the opportunity to develop an appreciation for that genre—usually due to a boring experience in a classroom. Over the last 12 years, I’ve had the privilege of sharing poetry that is anything but boring. Along the way, a second goal emerged: to provide a daily dose of something positive and uplifting. This book is a harvest of “the cream of the crop”—100 poems selected out of the nearly 4000 archived on YDP for their ability to make you smile.

I am so grateful to the poets whose wonderful words are included in this book, and to those who have allowed me to showcase their work on YourDailyPoem.com. I’m also grateful to Dan and Rene’ Batson for their friendship and for introducing me to Parson’s Porch; to David Russell Tullock and his team for turning this anthology into a reality; to my precious family for their constant encouragement of my sundry writing projects, and to YDP subscribers around the world—most of who never suspected when they signed up that, more than a decade later, they’d still be reading a poem every day!

Jayne Jaudon Ferrer
Editor, YourDailyPoem.com