Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser

The thing about reading poems is that you don't get the payoff until the end, as it should be. Then you have to go back and start over to see what got you there. So, you read each poem at least twice. Ted Kooser's poems are worth the time. He believes in poetry that people can understand and in this Pulitzer Prize winning book, that is very evident.

I think one of the things that attracts me to Kooser is that he writes about plain old everyday stuff. Plates left to him by his aunt, tying a necktie, a peg board painted with the shapes of tools, and garage sales. What a pleasure to read about things I can relate to. I feel I may well have seen the same old man at the garage sale down the street, that is how immediate these poems are to me.

Here is a sample of one of Kooser's poems:

Just now,
a sparrow lighted
on a pine bough
right outside
my bedroom window
and a puff
of yellow pollen
flew away.

Wow, see what he did there, he made an ordinary sparrow extraordinary by metaphorically turning it into a puff of pollen. It is beautiful!

This is another book of poetry that lends itself to readers who are not sure they like poetry but want to try some. And a note that might make them sing even more--read them aloud. It really makes a difference when you hear them.