8 Quotes & Sayings By Ted Kooser

Ted Kooser is a native of Omaha, Nebraska. He attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, receiving his B.A. in English in 1959. He later earned an MFA from the University of Iowa in Creative Writing in 1965 Read more

Kooser has taught at the University of California-Davis, University of South Carolina, and San Diego State University. A recipient of a 2011 National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities, he lives in San Diego with his wife, Ann. They have two children and two grandchildren.

Valentine's Day is the poet's holiday.
1
Valentine's Day is the poet's holiday. Ted Kooser
When she left me I stood out in the thunderstorm,...
2
When she left me I stood out in the thunderstorm, hoping to be destroyed by lightning. It missed, first left, then right. Ted Kooser
4
MOTHER — By Ted KooserMid April already, and the wild plumsbloom at the roadside, a lacy whiteagainst the exuberant, jubilant greenof new grass and the dusty, fading black of burned-out ditches. No leaves, not yet, only the delicate, star-petaledblossoms, sweet with their timeless perfume. You have been gone a month todayand have missed three rains and one nightlongwatch for tornadoes. I sat in the cellarfrom six to eight while fat spring cloudswent somersaulting, rumbling east. Then it poured, a storm that walked on legs of lightning, dragging its shaggy belly over the fields. The meadowlarks are back, and the finchesare turning from green to gold. Those sametwo geese have come to the pond again this year, honking in over the trees and splashing down. They never nest, but stay a week or twothen leave. The peonies are up, the red sprouts, burning in circles like birthday candles, for this is the month of my birth, as you know, the best month to be born in, thanks to you, everything ready to burst with living. There will be no more new flannel nightshirtssewn on your old black Singer, no birthday cardaddressed in a shaky but businesslike hand. You asked me if I would be sad when it happenedand I am sad. But the iris I moved from your housenow hold in the dusty dry fists of their rootsgreen knives and forks as if waiting for dinner, as if spring were a feast. I thank you for that. Were it not for the way you taught me to lookat the world, to see the life at play in everything, I would have to be lonely forever. Ted Kooser
5
Mother (fragment)...You asked me if I would be sad when it happenedand I am sad. But the iris I moved from your housenow hold in the dusty dry fists of their rootsgreen knives and forks as if waiting for dinner, as if spring were a feast. I thank you for that. Were it not for the way you taught me to lookat the world, to see the life at play in everything, I would have to be lonely forever. Ted Kooser
6
She'd had little patience with darkness, and her heartheld only a measure of shadow. I touchedthe warm dust of those colors, her tools, and left there with light on the tips of my fingers. Ted Kooser
7
A storm that walked on legs of lightning, dragging its shaggy belly over the fields. Ted Kooser