Poetry Idol: The Genius of Ted Kooser

If you've followed The Small Nouns awhile, you've undoubtedly noticed that I have a handful of poets that I write about quite often. I think the leaders would have to be Naomi Shihab Nye and W.S. Merwin. I think I'll start a new series that, until I think of a better name, I'll call "Poetry Idol."


Today it's time to show some love to Ted Kooser, a brilliant poet and former poet laureate of the United States.


Mr. Kooser has been writing great poems for decades. And among the living American poetry greats, he, along with Billy Collins, have to be considered one of the most accessible poets publishing today. His poems make sense to normal people like you and me. But more than that, they resonate.


But Kooser isn't just writing poems. He's also written an amazing book about writing poetry, The Poetry Home Repair Manual.

It, too, is quite accessible and incredibly helpful for aspiring poets. And not only did I enjoy reading about how Kooser thinks about writing, but he also includes some amazing poems that he and others have written that I hadn't read before.


And then there's his website, American Life in Poetry. It's an ongoing anthology of contemporary American poetry. Each week, Kooser features a poem that you've probably never read. And each week, he hits a home run. I've never read a poem on this site that I didn't enjoy.


But wait, there's more. I haven't even shown you any of his poems yet. Here's what has to be one of my all-time favorites...

After Years

Ted Kooser

Today, from a distance, I saw you
walking away, and without a sound
the glittering face of a glacier
slid into the sea. An ancient oak
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only
a handful of leaves, and an old woman
scattering corn to her chickens looked up
for an instant

Please read the rest here. It's glorious, isn't it?


I guess I'm technically a Midwesterner, but Ted's neck of the woods, Nebraska is way more Midwest than here. If there's a poet out there who captures the essence of the Midwest better than him, I don't know who it is...

So This Is Nebraska

BY TED KOOSER

The gravel road rides with a slow gallop   

over the fields, the telephone lines   

streaming behind, its billow of dust   

full of the sparks of redwing blackbirds.

On either side, those dear old ladies,

the loosening barns, their little windows   

dulled by cataracts of hay and cobwebs   

hide broken tractors under their skirts.

So this is Nebraska. A Sunday   

afternoon; July. Driving along

with your hand out squeezing the air,   

a meadowlark waiting on every post.

Read the rest here.

And if you like these, you'll definitely like each and every poem by Kooser featured at Garrison Keilor's The Writer's Almanac. If you only have time for one of them, choose "For You, Friend." It's a week late but keep it bookmarked for next Valentine's Day. And if you only have time for a second, try the incomparable "A Spiral Notebook." Or maybe "Tracks," another good Valentine poem. So tough to decide with a genius like Ted Kooser.

Hope you enjoyed the first ever "Poetry Idol," Ted Kooser. Come back next week for another of my favorites!

I Heart Poetry Anthologies

It's snowing again. I think five inches have fallen in the last five hours and there's no sign of it slowing. Nights like this, it's kind of nice to be stuck inside with a nice book of poetry to read, don't you think?

I love poetry books. I like collecting big volumes of my favorite poets' collected works: Kunitz, Cummings, etc. I like reading poets' individual books, too--Merwin, Alexie, and Adonnizio are a few I've read recently.

But for some reason, the poetry books I truly adore are anthologies. Like a mix tape on poetry steroids, a good anthology can keep my attention for weeks or more. And it's anthologies I always return to when seeking new poems and poets to read.

I love their diversity--the intermingling of poetic styles, the combination of poets both lauded and unknown--and yet, when they're done right, the anthology flows seamlessly from one poem to the next. And then there's the fact that you can just dive right in, open it to any one page and maybe discover a new favorite or rediscover a poem near and dear to your heart. Yes, anthologies are the cat's pajamas but unlike feline sleepwear, I think I'll never own enough of them.

Oh, I almost forgot one of the best features of some anthologies--introductions! I get a kick out of reading the anthologist's thoughts about poetry and about how they put their collection together. If you read past the obligatory "There were so many good poems that I couldn't include..." you usually get some insight into the method behind their choices.

Wow, I almost forgot another wonderful feature of many anthologies--appendices! I love it when you get to read a little blurb about the poets included in the book. And it's even better when, as in the Best American Poetry series, the poet's own thoughts are included, letting the reader in to the mystical minds of the writers themselves.

Here's one example of an anthology I came across recently, The Poets Laureate Anthology edited by Elizabeth Hun Schmidt:

It includes poems from every poet laureate of the United States. Ever. As well as short biographical pieces about each one. I learned a lot from this book. I did not know, for example, that William Carlos Williams and Gwendolyn Brooks were each nominated to this position (which at that time was called "Poetry Consultant"--although Williams never actually served!). Good stuff.

Here's "Abandoned Farmhouse" by one of my favorite laureates, Ted Kooser:

He was a big man, says the size of his shoes

on a pile of broken dishes by the house;

a tall man too, says the length of the bed

in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,

says the Bible with a broken back

on the floor below the window, dusty with sun;

but not a man for farming, say the fields

cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.

A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall

papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves

covered with oilcloth, and they had a child,

says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.

Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves

and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.

And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.

It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.

Something went wrong, says the empty house

in the weed-choked yard.

Read the rest here.

One of my other favorite anthologies is edited by Naomi Shihab Nye and is called This Same Sky.

It features poems from around the world and is a must have, especially for teachers. Take for example, "I Hide Behind the Simple Things" by the Greek poet Yannis Ritsos. Here's the first stanza...

I hide behind the simple things so you'll find me,
if you don't find me, you'll find the things,
you'll touch what my hand has touched,
our hand-prints will merge.

Read the rest via Google Books.

I could go on and on, I suppose. And still I don't think I've truly captured what it is that I love about poetry anthologies and why I prefer them. Maybe something to explore in the future. If you have a favorite anthology, please share it with us in the comments!

Poetry Mix Tape: Ordinary Things

I try to start my year with poems students will enjoy. When they come to me, their exposure to good poetry is fairly limited. So what I want to help them do is realize how fun poetry is. I do this with some silly rhyming poems, but also with poems that have poetry moves that they can easily understand and enjoy, moves like metaphor and repetition and multiple meanings. (I used Hughes to talk about a lot of these things).

Now, I like to hit them with free verse and show them that poetry can truly be about anything. Check that. Not just anything. But ANYTHING. There are no limits really, I tell them, when it comes to where poems "hide."

In that spirit, for the next few weeks we'll be reading poems about everyday, commonplace, mundane, and ordinary things. This Mix Tape may be the easiest to add to for the wonderful readers out there. So feel free to comment and contribute more poems. But here's my Mix Tape of poems about ordinary things, also known as poems that make the ordinary seem extraordinary...

The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams
Between Walls by William Carlos Williams
Daddy Longlegs by Ted Kooser
Gas Pump by Jed Chambers (can't find this one anywhere but here -- scroll down to find it)
Safety Pin by Valerie Worth
Ode to My Socks by Pablo Neruda
To Television by Robert Pinsky
The Broken Sandal by Denise Levertov
The Heron by Linda Hogan

And finally, I'm not sure if this qualifies, but it is a poem about an ordinary situation involving ordinary things. And it paints a vivid, beautiful picture of the situation...

In the Basement of the Goodwill Store

BY TED KOOSER

In musty light, in the thin brown air   

of damp carpet, doll heads and rust,   

beneath long rows of sharp footfalls   

like nails in a lid, an old man stands   

trying on glasses, lifting each pair

from the box like a glittering fish   

and holding it up to the light

of a dirty bulb. Near him, a heap   

of enameled pans as white as skulls   

looms in the catacomb shadows,   

and old toilets with dry red throats   

cough up bouquets of curtain rods.

Read the rest at the Poetry Foundation, please. And, of course, add your favorite "ordinary" poems in the 

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