poetry filter: ted kooser
i recently bought a collection of ted kooser's work called flying at night. old teddy is very much a rural midwesterner and he mostly writes about his life. although his life experiences are vastly different from mine, i find that i relate to his work in a very personal way. it's not the subjects of the poems that stimulate that place in me that loves poetry (what sandra cisneros calls "the heart of the heart"), but instead the quality of the sentiments. i have felt about the simple pleasures of my life very like kooser seems to feel about his. plus, he's such a fine, unpretentious wordsmith that his skill pretty much takes my breath away every time.
here's a
In an Old Apple Orchard
The wind's an old man
to this orchard; these trees
have been feeling
the soft tug of his gloves
for a hundred years.
Now it's April again,
and again that old fool
thinks he's young.
He's combed the dead leaves
out of his beard; he's put on
perfume. He's gone off
late in the day
toward the town, and come back
slow in the morning,
reeling with bees.
As late as noon, if you look
in the long grass,
you can see him
still rolling about in his sleep.
.
here's a
In an Old Apple Orchard
The wind's an old man
to this orchard; these trees
have been feeling
the soft tug of his gloves
for a hundred years.
Now it's April again,
and again that old fool
thinks he's young.
He's combed the dead leaves
out of his beard; he's put on
perfume. He's gone off
late in the day
toward the town, and come back
slow in the morning,
reeling with bees.
As late as noon, if you look
in the long grass,
you can see him
still rolling about in his sleep.
.