The poem is the device through which the ordinary world is seen in a new way - engaging, compelling, even beautiful. Ted Kooser More Quotes by Ted Kooser More Quotes From Ted Kooser There are mornings when everything brims with promise, even my empty cup. Ted Kooser morningpositivepromise All night, this soft rain from The distant past. No wonder I sometimes Waken as a child. Ted Kooser rainchildrenpast Sometimes you sense how faithfully your life is delivered, even though you can't read the address. Ted Kooser addressesfaithsometimes There's nothing wrong with delighting in what you do. In fact, most of the fun you'll have as a poet will come about during the process of writing. Ted Kooser writingfunfacts Turtle has just one plan at a time, and every cell buys into it. Ted Kooser turtlesplanscells I like the idea of there being times when even words cost so much you used them sparingly. I have known a lot of old men and women who talked as if they were paying Western Union by the word. Ted Kooser costmenideas When she left me I stood out in the thunderstorm, hoping to be destroyed by lightning. It missed, first left, then right. Ted Kooser thunderstormlightningfirsts If I don't take the risk, I'll wind up with a bloodless poem. I have to be out there on the edge. Ted Kooser riskifswind Just as a dancer, turning and turning, may fill the dusty light with the soft swirl of her flying skirts, our weeping willow -- now old and broken , creaking in the breeze -- turns slowly, slowly in the winter sun, sweeping the rusty roof of the barn with the pale blue lacework of her shadow. Ted Kooser lightbluewinter This evening, I sat by an open window and read till the light was gone and the book was no more than a part of the darkness. Ted Kooser lightdarknessbook Keeping a journal is like taking good care of one’s heart. Ted Kooser carejournalheart A poem is a record of a discovery. Ted Kooser recordsdiscovery I farm a little plot of things to say, with not much frontage on the busy road. Ted Kooser plotbusylittles Now the seasons are closing their files Ted Kooser papertreewind It may very well be that people in San Francisco don't think we have any culture in Nebraska, but we have a different culture, and it's a very deep culture. We have these Czech immigrants, who are making this marvelous ethnic food and their Catholic lives and it's very fascinating stuff. Ted Kooser catholicpeoplethinking Every time somebody writes a theory about where literature's going, that person is not only contributing thought but nudging things to happen in one way or the other. Just as in painting, there's much more interest in the American scene painters and the early American... like the Ashcan school of painters. Who would have thought, 50 years ago, that Norman Rockwell would again be considered a serious painter? And yet, there are a lot of people who are saying Rockwell was a very accomplished technician. These things are constantly moving. Ted Kooser writingschoolmoving There's always been what I would call the William Carlos Williams strain, in which poems of simplicity and clarity are valued by a different community. I was talking to Galway Kinnell one day, and he said that there was an audience for poetry up until about 1920 and then, from that point on, the poets and the critics drifted. Ted Kooser simplicityone-daycommunity Somebody comes to my house and admires what I've done, sometimes I just give it to them. Because I don't want to get it all tied up in all that professional stuff because I have to do that as a writer. I don't need that. I need something like painting, where I can just play. Ted Kooser donehousegiving One movement that I find interesting - this is not a movement in poetry necessarily, but there's a movement on a lot of campuses now called eco - criticism. It's a body of theory based on how nature is treated in literary works. That sort of interests me. Ted Kooser interestcriticisminteresting In my work, I really try to look at ordinary things quite closely to see if there isn't a little bit of something special about them. I'm trying to make something as nearly perfect as I can out of words. Ted Kooser specialperfecttrying
