Every day the website Poetry Daily presents at least one new work from a contemporary poet excerpted from a book, magazine, or journal currently in print, with the goal of exposing the general reader to the wonderful, but often esoteric realm of modern poetics. Last Friday two of Charles Bernstein’s poems were featured on the site, including the poem “Thank You for Saying Thank You” from his most recent book Girly Man. Befitting, or perhaps belying Poetry Daily’s theme of “poetry for the people” Bernstein’s poem begins:

This is a totally
accessible poem.
There is nothing
in this poem
that is in any
way difficult
to understand.
All the words
are simple &
to the point.
There are no new
concepts, no
theories, no
ideas to confuse
you. This poem
has no intellectual
pretensions. It is
purely emotional.

You can check out the rest of this poem as well as Bernstein’s “Didn’t We” on the Poetry Daily website.