Columns by Ted-Kooser, by newest first

• Going Deaf by Miller Williams: American Life in Poetry #209 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  I've gotten to the age at which I am starting to strain to hear things, but I am glad to have gotten to that age, all the same.
• Long Marriage by Gerald Fleming: American Life in Poetry #208 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  To have a helpful companion as you travel through life is a marvelous gift.
• Barbershop Quartet, East Village Grille by Sebastian Matthews: American Life in Poetry #207 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  People singing, not professionally but just singing for joy, it's a wonderful celebration of life.
• Wild Flowers by Matthew Vetter: American Life in Poetry #206 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Ah, yes, the mid-life crisis.
• Corned Beef and Cabbage by George Bilgere: American Life in Poetry #205 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Memories have a way of attaching themselves to objects, to details, to physical tasks, and here, George Bilgere, an Ohio poet, happens upon mixed feelings about his mother while slicing a head of cabbage.
• Anniversary by Cecilia Woloch: American Life in Poetry #204 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Memories form around details the way a pearl forms around a grain of sand, and in this commemoration of an anniversary, Cecilia Woloch reaches back to grasp a few details that promise to bring a cherished memory forward, and succeeds in doing so.
• The Animals are Leaving by Charles Harper Webb: American Life in Poetry #203 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  To read in the news that a platoon of soldiers has been killed is a terrible thing, but to learn the name of just one of them makes the news even more vivid and sad.
• The Cherry Tree by David Wagoner: American Life in Poetry #202 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  David Wagoner, who lives in Washington state, is one of our country's most distinguished poets and the author of many wonderful books.
• At 14 by Don Welch: American Life in Poetry #201 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Don Welch lives in Nebraska and is one of those many talented American poets who have never received as much attention as they deserve.
• What My Father Left Behind by Chris Forhan: American Life in Poetry #200 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Here's a fine poem by Chris Forhan of Indiana, about surviving the loss of a parent, and which celebrates the lives that survive it, that go on.
• Inscrutable Twist by Anne Pierson Wiese: American Life in Poetry #199 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  I'd guess that most of us carry in our memories landscapes that, far behind us, hold significant meanings for us.
• Self-Portrait by Zozan Hawez: American Life in Poetry #198 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  This column has had the privilege of publishing a number of poems by young people, but this is the first we've published by a young person who is also a political refugee.
• A Small Moment by Cornelius Eady: American Life in Poetry #197 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  I suspect that one thing some people have against reading poems is that they are so often so serious, so devoid of joy, as if we poets spend all our time brooding about mutability and death and never having any fun.
• Gloves by Jose Angel Araguz: American Life in Poetry #196 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  One of the most effective means for conveying strong emotion is to invest some real object with one's feelings, and then to let the object carry those feelings to the reader.
• Christmas Night by Conrad Hilberry: American Life in Poetry #195 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Here is a poem, much like a prayer, in which the Michigan poet Conrad Hilberry asks for no more than a little flare of light, an affirmation, at the end of a long, cold Christmas day.
• Applied Geometry by Russell Libby: American Life in Poetry #194 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Father and child doing a little math homework together; it's an everyday occurrence, but here, Russell Libby, a poet who writes from Three Sisters Farm in central Maine, presents it in a way that makes it feel deep and magical.
• How Is It That the Snow by Robert Haight: American Life in Poetry #193 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  The first two lines of this poem pose a question many of us may have thought about: how does snow make silence even more silent?
• Fences by Pat Mora: American Life in Poetry #192 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Class, status, privilege; despite all our talk about equality, they're with us wherever we go.
• Finding a Bible in an Abandoned Cabin by Robert Wrigley: American Life in Poetry #191 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Most of us love to find things, and to discover a quarter on the sidewalk can make a whole day seem brighter.
• Cutting Hair by Minnie Bruce Pratt: American Life in Poetry #190 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Occupational hazards, well, you have to find yourself in the occupation to know about those.
• On Swearing by Gary Dop: American Life in Poetry #189 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  In celebration of Veteran's Day, here is a telling poem by Gary Dop, a Minnesota poet.
• The Accompanist by Dick Allen: American Life in Poetry #188 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  I really like this poem by Dick Allen, partially for the way he so easily draws us in, with his easygoing, conversational style, but also for noticing what he has noticed, the overlooked accompanist there on the stage, in the shadow of the singer.
• Ghost Villanelle by Dan Lechay: American Life in Poetry #187 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  I thought that we'd celebrate Halloween with an appropriate poem, and Iowa poet Dan Lechay's seems just right.
• Daughter by James P. Lenfestey: American Life in Poetry #186 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Every child can be seen as a miracle, and here Minnesota poet James Lenfestey captures the beautiful mystery of a daughter.
• The Old Liberators by Robert Hedin: American Life in Poetry #185 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  When I was a boy, there were still a few veterans of the Spanish American War, and more of The Great War, or World War I, and now all those have died and those who served in World War II are passing from us, too.
• After Work by John Maloney: American Life in Poetry #184 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  I hope it's not just a guy thing, a delight in the trappings of work.
• Gathering Leaves in Grade School by Judith Harris: American Life in Poetry #183 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Perhaps you made paper leaves when you were in grade school.
• The Crow by Kaelum Poulson: American Life in Poetry #182 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Poetry has often served to remind us to look more closely, to see what may have been at first overlooked.
• Prayer for the Dead by Stuart Kestenbaum: American Life in Poetry #181 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Stuart Kestenbaum, the author of this week's poem, lost his brother Howard in the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
• My name came from. . . by Emmett Tenorio Melendez: American Life in Poetry #180 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  What's in a name?
• Bushwick: Latex Flat by D. Nurkse: American Life in Poetry #179 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  I've always loved shop talk, with its wonderful language of tools and techniques.
• Father, Child, Water by Gary Dop: American Life in Poetry #178 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  We mammals are ferociously protective of our young, and we all know not to wander in between a sow bear and her cubs.
• Rain at the Zoo by Kristen Tracy: American Life in Poetry #177 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Kristen Tracy is a poet from San Francisco who here captures a moment at a zoo.
• Sunflower by Frank Steele: American Life in Poetry #176 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Hearts and flowers, that's how some people dismiss poetry, suggesting that's all there is to it, just a bunch of sappy poets weeping over love and beauty.
• Driving to Camp Lend-A-Hand by Berwyn Moore: American Life in Poetry #175 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  A part of being a parent, it seems, is spending too much time fearing the worst.
• To Katharine: At Fourteen Months by Joelle Biele: American Life in Poetry #174 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  I'd guess you've all seen a toddler hold something over the edge of a high-chair and then let it drop, just for the fun of it.
• Piano by Patrick Phillips: American Life in Poetry #173 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Poets are especially good at investing objects with meaning, or in drawing meaning from the things of this world.
• Marry Me by Veronica Patterson: American Life in Poetry #172 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  I don't often talk about poetic forms in this column, thinking that most of my readers aren't interested in how the clock works and would rather be given the time.
• Planting the Sand Cherry by Ann Struthers: American Life in Poetry #171 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  Sometimes I think that people are at their happiest when they're engaged in activities close to the work of the earliest humans: telling stories around a fire, taking care of children, hunting, making clothes.
• Night Dive by Samuel Green: American Life in Poetry #170 by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, from Ted-Kooser
  I've lived all my life on the plains, where no body of water is more than a few feet deep, and even at that shallow depth I'm afraid of it.

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