A Poem For Every Night of the Year: A Review

When I look online for how to improve my day-to-day, whether it’s how to improve productivity or get a better night’s sleep, the word schedule keeps coming up.

When I think of schedules, I think of rigid timetables and strict rules. I think of the repercussions for running late or not perfectly adhering. It gives me anxiety. My medical conditions and freelance work life mean that no two days look alike. How can I possibly implement a schedule?

Enter “A poem for every night of the year. “This book, thoughtfully compiled by Allie Esiri, provides exactly what the title says it does. I picked it up, thinking it was another way I could work more reading into my daily life. I absolutely adore poetry; it has inspired some of my favourite things that I have written. I was so excited to read it that I didn’t wait until January as originally planned. I started on Nov. 3rd.

This is how I managed to carve out a little ritual each evening, curling up in bed with a soft light on and reading aloud the poem for that night. Each poem comes with an introduction marking why it was chosen for that night. How it was meant to reflect the season or a particular historical event or holiday. What was wonderful about this being a ritual and not a scheduled thing was that it didn’t matter if I missed a night. If I fell asleep before reading or if I had a headache and couldn’t concentrate. If I missed a night, it didn’t matter; I would just read two the next night.

It became part of the rhythm of my day. A soft way to excite my mind enough to send it whirling off into dreamland. Like the hug of a warm blanket and a cup of tea.

Weirdly this little ritual began to create a pattern.

I was going to sleep a little earlier, which meant I was waking up a little earlier. I was also getting more sleep and feeling less stressed, so I was waking up more fresh. This led to me discovering that I liked to do this sort of writing in the morning. The evening ritual grew a little more complicated as I worked in my old skincare routine.

Slowly slowly, things were added, and there were days that differed. There were times bits were skipped. But for the most part, my days started to form that dreaded thing - a schedule.

But unlike the version I had envisioned before, this schedule was dynamic and forgiving. It moved and shifted as I needed it to. Just like the stupid experts had predicted, my life was better with a schedule. I was more productive and slept better. But because I carved it out in a more organic way, my schedule wasn’t stress-inducing; it also was longer lasting than any outside enforced schedule that I had ever tried.

So here is where I end the piece - with a little advice and a book recommendation. If you are struggling to find a pattern for your days, try looking at the patterns that are already there; try altering it slowly, one bit at a time. Know that it will never be a fixed thing because our lives are not fixed. If you are willing to change your rhythm to move with the seasons or with the sudden changes of our modern lives, then you will still feel the calm reassurance of your patterns even when they become dramatically different from what you had originally mapped out. And finally, the book recommendation… I really like a poem for every night of the year. I’ve loved the act of sitting down and reading them almost every night. I’ve loved mulling them over in my head, whether I liked the poem or not. So even if you’re not going to read them that way, I think that they will provide a wonderful read for you. I hope you enjoy it.