Selecting a Reader

(Ted Kooser, poet laureate, 2004-2006)

SELECTING A READER

First, I would have her be beautiful,
and walking carefully up on my poetry
at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,
her hair still damp at the neck
from washing it. She should be wearing
a raincoat, an old one, dirty
from not having money enough for the cleaners.
She will take out her glasses, and there
in the bookstore, she will thumb
over my poems, then put the book back
up on its shelf. She will say to herself,
“For that kind of money, I can get
my raincoat cleaned.” And she will.

~ Ted Kooser, born 1939, American poet

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A Happy Birthday

(Mrs. William Frazer of Delaware, 1798
by William Clarke, American painter)

Today is my birthday.

A HAPPY BIRTHDAY

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.
I could easily have switched on a lamp,
but I wanted to ride this day down into night,
to sit alone and smooth the unreadable page
with the pale gray ghost of my hand.

~ Ted Kooser, born 1939, U. S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006

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