Delights and Shadows

Rating:
Summary: kooser's best book
Review: I think Kooser's latest book is his best book yet. The poems are concise and written in that plainspoken style Kooser has perfected. And Kooser speaks a poetic language we can all understand. There are five poems that really stand out in the collection. "Tattoo" deals with the fading and aging not just of a man's tatoo, but in a way, of man himself. It's a simply elegant poem. "At the Cancer Clinic" is perhaps the finest poem in the book. Very elegant. Very simple. And wonderful. "A Rainy Morning" compares the operation of a wheelchair with the playing of a piano, which is a fresh and vibrant metaphor, at least in Kooser's hands. "Memory" is atypical of Kooser. It is longer than most of his poems and is one marathon sentence that employs more poetic tricks than one is used to seeing in his poetry. But it suceeds and very well. And finally "Mother" which I think you can only appreciate by reading. Kooser's poems speak (much like his predecessor Billy Collins) to the common reader. That isn't to say that his poems aren't worth rereading. You gain much by revisiting a Kooser poem. He is one of the best writing today.

Rating:
Summary: An American Experience
Review: Ted Kooser, along with the other great American narrative poets of present (Philip Levine, Neeli Cherkovski and Ann Menebroker to name a few) works to captured the American experience. In Delights and Shadows Ted Kooser offers the reader a view of his corner of the world. A place where the personable is always present, he reminds us that every good secret is worth repeating and that the best place to repeat it is, one on one, over a cup of coffee in the warmth of Pearl's living room. Ted Kooser's Delights and Shadows is a very intimate look at us - one I strongly recommend reading.

Rating:
Summary: His poetry gives voice to the heartland in universal way
Review: The Librarian of Congree named Kooser U.S. Poet Laureate on August 12th for a one-year term beginning in October, 2004. He is a retired life insurance executive who lives on an acreage near the village of Garland, Nebraska, northwest of Lincoln. He has published ten books of poetry and won numerous awards including two National Endowment fo the Arts fellowships in poetry, the James Boatwright Prize, the Pushcart prize, the Stanley Kunitz Prize, a Merit Award from the Nebraska Arts Council and the 2001 Nebraska Book Award for poetry.
This is his latest effort and a perfect example of his talent for writing poetry that is accessible, inviting, familiar and ordinary in a most extraordinary way. There are no tricks, no intentional obscurities, no academic machinatins or clever slights of hand in his work. Instead, what you get is his observation of people, places, and events that make up our everydday life in an ordinary world all done in a way this is frest, illuminating, and ultimately Oh, so familiar. Using what poet Randall Jarrell calls "the dailiness of life," Kooser combines the past and present to remind us of, ultimately, the worthiness of existence.
For example, in the poem"A Winter Morning," Our attention is called to the light in a farmhouse window viewed from the highway that we have all seen in one form or another.
"A farmhouse window far back from the highway
speaks to the darkness in a small, sure voice.
against this stillness, only a kettle's whisper,
and against the starry cold, one small blue ring of flame."

His poem "Necktie" is delightful, implies familiarity that is somehow new and important, and indicative of the wonderful verses throughout the book.
"His hands flutter like birds,
each with a fancy silk ribbon
to weave into their nest,
as he stood at the mirror
dressing for work, waving hello
to himself with both hands."

In all there are fifty-nine poems ranging from his father, mother, casting reels, garage sales, death, memory, a new cap, and a host of commong things and daily events that will remain in your memory, and heart, long after you finish the book...if you ever do.
Kooser is truly a poet of the people. He gives voice to the heartland and is described by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington as "...a major poetic voice for rural and small town America..." whose "...verse reaches beyond his native region to touch on universal themes in accessible ways."

A wonderful collection from a poet truly worthy of being U.S. Poet Laureate.