Happy Birthday to Ted Kooser, born April 25, 1939, in Ames Iowa!

He is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, for Delights and Shadows, and also served two terms as the Poet Laureate of the United States.

A Man With a Rake is his newest collection–eighteen delectable vignettes, including “A Mouse Nest,” “A Sepia Photograph,” a “Fox.” Each a nugget of breathing space, an interlude. I was especially beguiled by “The Closed Road.” Ted Kooser’s gentle poetry captures essence.

The author of over twenty books, including five for children, and lives in a small town in Nebraska.

There’s a reason this poet is much loved. His poetry is so full of poignant vignettes of the ordinary, urging the mesmerized reader to pause and become a noticer of details as well. I’d list my favorite, but there are at least ten of them. I just love this man’s compelling work.

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My fibromyalgia symptoms became so miserable I thought I’d never be able to write again. I gave away all of my poetry books, including Kooser’s Delights and Shadows and The Poetry Home Repair Manual. I since have gratefully acquired new copies of both.