Ted Kooser

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

New York

A Smorgasbord of Tasty and Delicious Poems for Young Readers

Focusing on popular verse from the nineteenth century through today, this anthology invites young readers to sample a taste of irresistible poems that will nourish their minds and spirits. Selected for both popularity and literary quality, seventy charming poems cover a wide range of subjects: poetry, books, words, and imagination; the beauty of the natural world; travel, adventure, sports, and play; love, friendship, sadness, hope, and other emotions. Included are:
"Prickled Pickles Don't Smile," Nikki Giovanni
"W. D., Don't Fear that Animal," W. D. Snodgrass
"A Jelly-Fish," Marianne Moore
"The Porcupine," Ogden Nash
"Annabel Lee," Edgar Allan Poe
"The Falling Star," Sara Teasdale
"Sick," Shel Silverstein
"Casey at the Bat," Ernest Lawrence Thayer
"With Kitty, Age Seven, At the Beach," William Stafford
"Hope is the Thing with Feathers," Emily Dickinson
. . . . and sixty other notable works.
Chosen by the American Poetry & Literacy Project and the Academy of American Poets, two of the nation's most respected nonprofit poetry organizations, these much-loved and highly readable poems promise young readers and poetry lovers of all ages hours of reading pleasure.

How to Eat a Poem

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MAMERICAN LIVES SERIES Ted Kooser describes with exquisite detail and humor the place he calls home in the Bohemian Alps of southeastern Nebraska. Like many other people in this rural area, he has what he calls "wolf vision"- he sees every change in the landscape around him. Nothing is too big or too small for his attention. Memories of his grandmother's cooking are juxtaposed with reflections about che old-fash-ioned outhouse on his property. In the end, what makes life meaningful for Kooser are the ways in which his neighbors care for one another and how an afternoon walking with an old dog, or baking a pie, or decorating the house for Christmas can summon memories of his lowa childhood. This writer is a seer in the truest sense of the word, discovering the extraordinary within the ordinary, the deep beneath the shallow, the abiding wisdom in the pithy Bohemian proverbs that are woven into his essays. And when casting his eye on social progress, Kooser reminds us that the closing of local schools, thoughtless county weed control, and irresponsible housing development destroy more than just the view. At stake are communities, as well as families, our healch, and arguably our very souls.




Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Oregon

Seasons in the Bohemian Alps

"In the end, what makes life meaningful for Kooser are the ways in which his neighbors care for one another and how an afternoon walking with an old dog, or baking a pie, or decorating the house for Christmas can summon memories of his Iowa childhood. This writer is a seer in the truest sense of the word, discovering the extraordinary within the ordinary, the deep beneath the shallow, the abiding wisdom in the pithy Bohemian proverbs that are woven into his essays. And when casting his eye on social progress, Kooser reminds us that the closing of local schools, thoughtless county weed control, and irresponsible housing development destroy more than just the view. At stake are communities, as well as families, our health, and arguably our very souls."--BOOK JACKET.

Local Wonders

51f54e97-c401-45db-99fb-ad955e371ca8-1

Edge wear. Small crease to front cover. Tight binding. Pages in very good condition.

California

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

South Carolina

One of the "Big Indie Books of Fall 2014"--Publishers Weekly

Paterson Poetry Prize, 2015

"Ted Kooser must be the most accessible and enjoyable major poet in America. His lines are so clear and simple."--Michael Dirda,The Washington Post

"Readers [ofSplitting an Order] will find 'characters' both strange and wonderful, animal or human. There is a sense that time is passing quickly and that everything worthy must be captured and savored, from an old couple lovingly sharing a sandwich to another sowing seed potatoes to a tribute to an old dog who waits as age and winter approach... Master of the single-metaphor poem, Kooser offers images that evolve, fluid and unforced."--Library Journal, starred review

"Wisdom, compassion, and dignity continue to mark the poetry of Ted Kooser...Splitting an Order [is] a quiet collection that honors small victories and gives reasons to be hopeful."--Elizabeth Lund,The Christian Science Monitor

"Kooser's ability to discover the smallest detail and render it remarkable is a rare gift."--Bloomsbury Review

Pulitzer Prize winner and best selling poet Ted Kooser calls attention to the intimacies of life through commonplace objects and occurrences: an elderly couple sharing a sandwich is a study in transcendent love, while a tattered packet of spinach seeds calls forth innate human potential. This long-awaited collection from the former U.S. Poet Laureate--ten years in the making--is rich with quiet and profound magnificence.

From "Splitting an Order":

I like to watch an old man cutting a sandwich in half
... and then to see him lift half
onto the extra plate that he asked the server to bring,
and then to wait, offering the plate to his wife
while she slowly unrolls her napkin and places her spoon,
her knife and her fork in their proper places,
then smoothes the starched white napkin over her knees
and meets his eyes and holds out both old hands to him.

Ted Kooser is the author of numerous books of poetry and prose, includingDelights and Shadows (Copper Canyon Press), which won the Pulitzer Prize. A former US Poet Laureate, Kooser serves as editor for "American Life in Poetry," a nationally syndicated weekly newspaper column.


Splitting an Order

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Michigan

Illinois

English

Practical Advice for Beginning Poets

Recently appointed as the new U. S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser has been writing and publishing poetry for more than forty years. In the pages of The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Kooser brings those decades of experience to bear. Here are tools and insights, the instructions (and warnings against instructions) that poets—aspiring or practicing—can use to hone their craft, perhaps into art. Using examples from his own rich literary oeuvre and from the work of a number of successful contemporary poets, the author schools us in the critical relationship between poet and reader, which is fundamental to what Kooser believes is poetry’s ultimate purpose: to reach other people and touch their hearts. Much more than a guidebook to writing and revising poems, this manual has all the comforts and merits of a long and enlightening conversation with a wise and patient old friend—a friend who is willing to share everything he’s learned about the art he’s spent a lifetime learning to execute so well.

The Poetry Home Repair Manual

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Arizona

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

Ted Kooser, who served as United States Poet Laureate (2004-2006), is a poet who works toward clarity and accessibility, so that each distinctive poem appears to be as fresh and bright and spontaneous as a good watercolor painting. He is a haiku-like imagist who imbues his poems with "tender wisdom," and draws inspiration from the overlooked details of daily life.

Praise forDelights and Shadows:

"Ted Kooser...has a genius for making the ordinary sacred."--The New York Times

"A sense of wonder and compassion runs through this Pulitzer Prize winning volume... Kooser''s poetry is understated yet manages to skillfully illuminate the small moments of life."--Christian Science Monitor

"[Kooser] brushes poems over ordinary objects, revealing metaphysical themes that way an investigator dusts for fingerprints. His language is so controlled and convincing that one can''t help but feel significant truths behind his lines."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"There is a sense of quiet amazement at the core of all Kooser''s work, but it especially seems to animate his new collection of poems,Delights & Shadows. Every delight is shadowed by darkness in this book of small wonders and hard dualisms."--Edward Hirsch,The Washington Post

"Delights and Shadows is a book with a deep stillness at its center, perfectly self-contained."--Carol Muske-Dukes,Los Angeles Times

"Kooser''s ninth collection of poems reflects the simple and remarkable things of everyday life. That he often sees things we do not would be delight enough, but more amazing is exactly what he sees. Nothing escapes him; everything is illuminated....Highly recommended."--Library Journal

"Few poets depict the Midwest so accurately or with such tender regard... Kooser excels at the brief, imagistic poem."--The Kansas City Star

"Delights and Shadows raises the voice of the poet above everything else. Each short, vivid poem on the page reads as if it were being spoken aloud. Details about cemeteries, dictionaries, a doctor''s waiting room, and a jar of buttons bristle with sound and awareness. Kooser''s ability to use brief lyrics to compose a music of discovery and regeneration makes his work radiant and consuming... This is not an extended, complex or experimental kind of writing, but poetry that rings true, allowing the human sound ofbeing to exist on the page."--Bloomsbury Review

"Here is the gift and fragility of life."--The Wichita Eagle

"Kooser is a master of the subjective description. Empathetic without sentimentality, his eye ranges over all sorts of everyday subjects and finds material everywhere... wherever the unpredictable particularity of the world can be glimpsed... Perhaps Kooser''s success lies in his determination to see the... things of this world with such clarity and passion that their underlying mysteries, delights, and shadows also become clear, if only for a moment."--The Georgia Review

"You can almost see Kooser behind the poems, watching the world like a sketch artist... Kooser displays the same kind of fluid strokes Degas used in his ballet pictures...He is an exquisite miniaturist of daily life."--The Hartford Courant

"The poet finds magic in activities and objects typically considered mundane... Metaphors are the treasure of these short, imagistic poems, emphasizing the wonder and delight latent in what is often merely taken for granted."--Harvard Review

"Kooser has written more perfect poems than any poet of his generation." --Dana Gioia

"Kooser is straightforward, possesses an American essence, is humble, gritty, ironic and has a gift for detail and a deceptive simplicity."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer

As Poet Laureate of the United States,Ted Kooser launched the weekly poetry column "American Life in Poetry," which appears in over 100 newspapers nationwide. He is the author of ten books of poems, including the collaboration with Jim Harrison,Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry (isbn 9781556591877).


Delights and Shadows

228d8b8d-e60c-4d2e-a6e5-8274c93307ed-1

Utah

For Valentine?s Day 1986, Ted Kooser wrote ?Pocket Poem? and sent the tender, thoughtful composition to fifty women friends, starting an annual tradition that would persist for the next twenty-one years. Printed on postcards, the poems were mailed to a list of recipients that eventually grew to more than 2,500 women all over the United States. Valentines collects Kooser?s twenty-two years of Valentine?s Day poems, complemented with illustrations by Robert Hanna and a new poem appearing for the first time. ø Kooser?s valentine poems encompass all the facets of the holiday: the traditional hearts and candy, the brilliance and purity of love, the quiet beauty of friendship, and the bittersweetness of longing. Some of the poems use the word valentine, others do not, but there is never any doubt as to the purpose of Kooser?s creations.

Valentines

7066cac0-e25d-4345-8727-73396a1699cc-0

Creases to dust jacket with edge & corner wear. Minimal wear to book

New Mexico

Ted Kooser has been writing and publishing poetry for more than forty years. In the pages of The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Kooser brings those decades of experience to bear. Here are tools and insights, the instructions (and warnings against instructions) that poets--aspiring or practicing--can use to hone their craft, perhaps into art. Using examples from his own rich literary oeuvre and from the work of a number of successful contemporary poets, the author schools us in the critical relationship between poet and reader, which is fundamental to what Kooser believes is poetry's ultimate purpose: to reach other people and touch their hearts.
 
Much more than a guidebook to writing and revising poems, this manual has all the comforts and merits of a long and enlightening conversation with a wise and patient old friend--a friend who is willing to share everything he's learned about the art he's spent a lifetime learning to execute so well.

15c126c2-c7ef-47a3-adab-3ea539c37014-1

Excellent black and white photography in a coffee table book. Printed on matte white paper. Dust jacket has very small chip in lower back corner. Hardly noticeable. Book is in perfect condition. I could have listed it as New. 118 photos with descriptive captions. Every kind of architecture to be found in Nebraska. #hardcover 

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Against a stark horizon in a harsh climate, settlers in Nebraska everywhere erected monuments to their optimism. The buildings pictured in Dreams in Dry Places are not just famous landmarks like the State Capitol but also humble farmhouses, barns, grain elevators, courthouses, banks, churches, stores, and theaters. They represent every kind of architecture to be found in Nebraska--folk, high-style, commercial, residential, pioneer, and modern; the unexpected and the familiar, the poetic and the prosaic, good and bad. Caught by Roger Bruhn's camera, these structures always suggest the spiritual resources of their builders and inhabitants, who struggled for a livelihood on the Great Plains.Dreams in Dry Places has an architecture of its own, beginning and ending with images of the natural landscape and in between revealing unexpected continuities among disparate structures and settings, juxtapositions of forms, and the vanities and vagaries of architectural style. Exterior and interior shots are combined to show how a sense of openness pervades design. The 118 photographs are in black and white--the color of dreams. In his introduction Bruhn writes, With images alone, I hope to make you feel something about striving, about aspirations, about dreams.

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Ted Kooser

How to Eat a Poem

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Splitting an Order

Ted Kooser

Splitting an Order

Ted Kooser

The Poetry Home Repair Manual

Ted Kooser

Delights and Shadows

Ted Kooser

Delights and Shadows

Ted Kooser

Valentines

Ted Kooser

Local Wonders

Ted Kooser

Splitting an Order

Ted Kooser

The Poetry Home Repair Manual

Roger Bruhn; Ted Kooser (Foreword by); Edward F. Zimmer (Notes by)

Dreams in Dry Places

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Ted Kooser

How to Eat a Poem

Ted Kooser

Local Wonders

Ted Kooser

How to Eat a Poem

Ted Kooser

Splitting an Order

Ted Kooser

Splitting an Order

Ted Kooser

The Poetry Home Repair Manual

Ted Kooser

Delights and Shadows

Ted Kooser

Delights and Shadows

Ted Kooser

Valentines

Ted Kooser

Local Wonders

Ted Kooser

Splitting an Order

Ted Kooser

The Poetry Home Repair Manual

Roger Bruhn; Ted Kooser (Foreword by); Edward F. Zimmer (Notes by)

Dreams in Dry Places