Welcome back to The Daily Poem. I'm David Kern, in today's Thursday, May 6th, 2021.

Today's poem is by Sharon Olds, who is an American poet who's born in 1942.

She won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award, and in 2013, she won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.

Today, she teaches creative writing at New York University.

The poem that I'm going to read to you today is called The Race. And one of the reasons I wanted

to read it is because this is a great poem, but also because it gives me the opportunity

to tell you about the book where I found it. That book is called 100 Poems to Break Your Heart.

It's by Edward Hirsch, who is the author of How to Read a Poem and Follow in Love

With Poetry.

Great writer on poetry.

It's new, came out just this year.

And he talks about this poem.

It's one of the 100 poems, but then he also explains, writes a little brief essay about

each of the poems.

It's a really fascinating book. Now, you know, you've got the poems. So it's a really fascinating book.

Now, you know, you've got to be careful because it's a book about poems that are going to

break your heart. So it's not for every moment. But this poem is called The Race, and I want

to share it with you. And then I'm going to let Edward Hirsch share a little bit about this poem.

And again, nothing original for me. It's full credit to Edward

Hirsch and his book 100 poems to break your heart. But here is Sharon Olds poem, The Race.

When I got to the airport, I rushed up to the desk, bought a ticket. Ten minutes later,

they told me the flight was canceled. The doctors had said my father would not live

...