Kindest Regards: Poems, Selected and New

ISBN: 1556595344

Author: Kooser, Ted

Condition: New

Product DescriptionFour decades of poetry-and a generous selection of new work-make up this extraordinary collection by Pulitzer Prize winner Ted Kooser. Firmly rooted in the landscapes of the Midwest, Koosers poetry succeeds in finding the emotional resonances within the ordinary. Koosers language of quiet intensity trains itself on the intricacies of human relationships, as well as the animals and objects that make up our days. As Poetry magazine said of his work, Kooser documents the dignities, habits, and small griefs of daily life, our hunger for connection, our struggle to find balance.ReviewKoosers greatest assets have long been his generous eye and his way with understatement, two qualities abundantly present in this book of new and selected poems.-The New York TimesRoutine, which orders the lives of Kooser and his country neighbors, has a monastic intensity in his poems, as the repetition of domestic ritual is embraced, not merely endured.- The Christian Science Monitor[Kooser] will one day rank alongside Edgar Lee Masters, Robert Frost, and William Carlos Williams.- The Star TribuneThere is a sense of quiet amazement at the core of all Kooser's work.- The Washington PostKoosers ability to discover the smallest detail and render it remarkable is a rare gift.-The Bloomsbury Review[Kooser] brushes poems over ordinary objects, revealing metaphysical themes that way an investigator dusts for fingerprints. His language is so controlled and convincing that one can't help but feel significant truths behind his lines.- The Philadelphia InquirerKooser documents the dignities, habits, and small griefs of daily life, our hunger for connection, our struggle to find balance in natural and unnaturally human worlds.- PoetryAbout the AuthorTed Kooser is the author of numerous books of poetry and prose, and he served as the Poet Laureate of the United States (2004-2006). Raised and educated in the Midwest, Kooser worked for most of his life as a life insurance executive in Lincoln, Nebraska. His book Delights & Shadows won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Kooser remains one of the best-selling poets in the U.S., and recently retired as the Presidential Professor at the University of Nebraska where he taught courses in poetry and nonfiction writing. He continues to be an important spokesperson for poetry through his newspaper column "American Life in Poetry." He lives with his wife in Garland, Nebraska.Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.Selecting a ReaderFirst, I would have her be beautiful,and walking carefully up on my poetryat the loneliest moment of an afternoon,her hair still damp at the neckfrom washing it, She should be wearinga raincoat, an old one, dirtyfrom not having money enough for the cleaners.She will take out her glasses, and therein the bookstore, she will thumbover my poems, then put the book backup on its shelf. She will say to herself,"For that kind of money, I can getmy raincoat cleaned." And she will.The Widow LesterI was too old to be married,but nobody told me,I guess they didn't care enough.How it had hurt, though, catching bouquetsall those years!Then I met Ivan, and kept himand never knew love.How his feet stunk in the bed sheets!I could have told him to wash,but I wanted to hold that stink against him.The day he dropped dead in the field.I was watching.I was hanging up sheets in the yard,and I finished.In the Basement of the Goodwill StoreIn musty light, in the thin brown airof damp carpet, doll heads and rust,beneath long rows of sharp footfallslike nails in a lid, an old man standstrying on glasses, lifting each pairfrom the box like a glittering fishand holding it up to the lightof a dirty bulb. Near him. a heapof enameled pans as white as skullslooms in the catacomb shadows,and old toilets with dry red throatscough up bouquets of curtain rods.You've seen him somewhere before.He's wearing the