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A Man with a Rake
Ted Kooser lives and writes on 62 acres of wooded hills and pasture in rural Nebraska with his wife, Kathleen Rutledge, a retired editor of the Lincoln Journal Star. None of their property is farmed and is instead left to an abundance of wildlife. For many years Kooser worked at a desk in the life insurance business, retired at 60, and for fifteen years taught poetry writing in the graduate program of the University of Nebraska.
He is the author of fifteen books of poetry, five volumes of nonfiction, five children's picture books, and seventeen chapbooks and special editions. He served two terms as U.S. Poet Laureate and his 2004 collection of poems, Delights & Shadows, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Prior to the publication of A Man with a Rake, his most recent collection of poems is Red Stilts, from Copper Canyon Press. More about his life, his work, and his many honors can be found at www.tedkooser.net.
He is the author of fifteen books of poetry, five volumes of nonfiction, five children's picture books, and seventeen chapbooks and special editions. He served two terms as U.S. Poet Laureate and his 2004 collection of poems, Delights & Shadows, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Prior to the publication of A Man with a Rake, his most recent collection of poems is Red Stilts, from Copper Canyon Press. More about his life, his work, and his many honors can be found at www.tedkooser.net.
- GenresPoetry
23 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 15, 2022
5 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Ted Kooser
101 books299 followersTed Kooser lives in rural Nebraska with his wife, Kathleen, and three dogs. He is one of America's most noted poets, having served two terms as U. S. Poet Laureate and, during the second term, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection, Delights & Shadows. He is a retired life insurance executive who now teaches part-time at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. The school board in Lincoln, Nebraska, recently opened Ted Kooser Elementary School, which Ted says is his greatest honor, among many awards and distinctions. He has published twelve collections of poetry and three nonfiction books. Two of the latter are books on writing, The Poetry Home Repair Manual and Writing Brave and Free, and a memoir, Lights on a Ground of Darkness (all from University of Nebraska Press. Bag in the Wind from Candlewick is his first children's book, with which he is delighted. "It's wonderful," Ted said, "to be writing for young people. I am reinventing myself at age 70."
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 15, 2022
There’s one catastrophic, devastating poem in this chapbook of 18 poems, but Kooser mostly sticks to his usual specialty. He takes a quiet, nothing that special, country day, applies his powers of observation, and transforms a piece of the world.
What amazed me most in this short masterpiece were two poems that reversed the process of ekphrastic poetry. Usually a poet looks at a work of art and imagines it coming to life or he steps into the painting. In “From a Low Hill,” Kooser looks out upon a vista of “dusty, sun-flattened colors / like those in a Japanese woodblock.” In other words, he makes us see art that isn’t there, and makes us feel the absence of the “minuscule, faraway villager…leading a donkey up a long trail into always.” The poem that follows, “A Glint,” makes us hear music plucked by morning sunlight on a thread of spider’s silk. I was drawn to read each of those poems two or three times through before moving on, and each reading brought as much pleasure.
What amazed me most in this short masterpiece were two poems that reversed the process of ekphrastic poetry. Usually a poet looks at a work of art and imagines it coming to life or he steps into the painting. In “From a Low Hill,” Kooser looks out upon a vista of “dusty, sun-flattened colors / like those in a Japanese woodblock.” In other words, he makes us see art that isn’t there, and makes us feel the absence of the “minuscule, faraway villager…leading a donkey up a long trail into always.” The poem that follows, “A Glint,” makes us hear music plucked by morning sunlight on a thread of spider’s silk. I was drawn to read each of those poems two or three times through before moving on, and each reading brought as much pleasure.
March 22, 2022
Like a tall glass of cool water on a hot dusty summer day. Kooser is always needed.
April 24, 2022
“The ghosts of the old German farmers
are up early today, drinking coffee,
standing at their kitchen windows…”
So begins Man with a Rake, the newest Kooser book from Pulley Press—which aspires to locate, encourage, and publish poetry by poets who write from America’s rural places. Kooser does his usual magnificent job of small observations that hold a world of insight.
The 18 poems are wonderful; my favorites are Gumbo (imagined ghosts of past farmers in abandoned farmhouses), A Mouse Nest (a tiny drama in two pages of a mouse who made a home in his bandsaw), Walking Out for the Mail (I grew up with a long country driveway in Alabama and remember the trek for the mail very well), A Fox (we have many of these beautiful creatures roam our neighborhood in town), and Moon Shadow (a tree writes a letter on the ground in moonlight, which disappears in the morning.)
“…I, too, now breathless as I watched
her pass along that long, long hall,
a flame reflected in its many doors.”
Kooser describes a fox in a cemetery with the same understated but lovely language we have become used to in his work. Matt Sutherland says in Foreword Reviews, “We can convince ourselves that we know Midwestern soil, a stream bank, the stillness of a cedar fence post, but Ted Kooser shows otherwise in this collection of eighteen poems, his fifteenth collection.”
The book is small—20 pages of print—with a binding so narrow there’s no title on it. The pages on my edition were also very thin and I could see the back of the next page, which was very distracting; I wish the paper was a smidge thicker.
I was fortunate to pick this up at our local library the day they set it out; I had a postcard about the book from Pulley Press attached to my refrigerator with a magnet to remind me to get it. I enjoyed it and am now going through it a second time—in which I am sure to find new phrases and moments to love.
are up early today, drinking coffee,
standing at their kitchen windows…”
So begins Man with a Rake, the newest Kooser book from Pulley Press—which aspires to locate, encourage, and publish poetry by poets who write from America’s rural places. Kooser does his usual magnificent job of small observations that hold a world of insight.
The 18 poems are wonderful; my favorites are Gumbo (imagined ghosts of past farmers in abandoned farmhouses), A Mouse Nest (a tiny drama in two pages of a mouse who made a home in his bandsaw), Walking Out for the Mail (I grew up with a long country driveway in Alabama and remember the trek for the mail very well), A Fox (we have many of these beautiful creatures roam our neighborhood in town), and Moon Shadow (a tree writes a letter on the ground in moonlight, which disappears in the morning.)
“…I, too, now breathless as I watched
her pass along that long, long hall,
a flame reflected in its many doors.”
Kooser describes a fox in a cemetery with the same understated but lovely language we have become used to in his work. Matt Sutherland says in Foreword Reviews, “We can convince ourselves that we know Midwestern soil, a stream bank, the stillness of a cedar fence post, but Ted Kooser shows otherwise in this collection of eighteen poems, his fifteenth collection.”
The book is small—20 pages of print—with a binding so narrow there’s no title on it. The pages on my edition were also very thin and I could see the back of the next page, which was very distracting; I wish the paper was a smidge thicker.
I was fortunate to pick this up at our local library the day they set it out; I had a postcard about the book from Pulley Press attached to my refrigerator with a magnet to remind me to get it. I enjoyed it and am now going through it a second time—in which I am sure to find new phrases and moments to love.
March 21, 2022
Eighteen delectable vignettes, "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.
September 13, 2022
A slim volume of lovely poems about a fading rural way of life. Here’s the beginning of one poem:
A Glint
I watched a glint of morning sunlight
climbing a thread of spider’s silk......
Purposeful cliffhanger so you read the book yourself.
A Glint
I watched a glint of morning sunlight
climbing a thread of spider’s silk......
Purposeful cliffhanger so you read the book yourself.
January 4, 2024
(though available, read via an online reader copy).
I am assuming there are only a handful of poems, making this collection look small. However, there is a lot packed in. The symbols of water, rural life, family and so much more grace the pages. Straight forward, not "artsy" but lyrical language. Maybe some would feel it a bit romantic, but it also captures the times, places and the feelings of days gone by. Who knew you could write a poem about a water pump? Well, Ted Kooser did!
I am assuming there are only a handful of poems, making this collection look small. However, there is a lot packed in. The symbols of water, rural life, family and so much more grace the pages. Straight forward, not "artsy" but lyrical language. Maybe some would feel it a bit romantic, but it also captures the times, places and the feelings of days gone by. Who knew you could write a poem about a water pump? Well, Ted Kooser did!
February 2, 2023
This book is less than 30 pages long, and only has about 17 poems. Of course, there are some great poems - it is Kooser after all! If this were any other author I would’ve given only 3 stars, because there’s not much here! Kooser gets 4 stats because, well…he’s Kooser!
I especially liked
A glint
Bankside
Moonshadows
And snippets from many others !
I especially liked
A glint
Bankside
Moonshadows
And snippets from many others !
March 27, 2022
A wonderful new collection from one of my favorite poets. Ted Kooser finds ways to pack the most routine and small moments with big truths and insights. I know I'll return to these poems many times, like I do all of Kooser's collections
August 5, 2022
Ted Kooser does it again offering poems for any type of poetry reader. He has such an ease with words. His poems will enlighten, comfort and wrap around you like a favorite hoodie or blanket. That’s only some of the reasons why he is one of my favorite poets!
August 17, 2023
A new Ted Kooser book is always cause for celebration. This chapbook of eighteen prose poems finds Kooser in top form with his keen eye for the detail of rural midwestern life captured on the page. Highly recommended.
[I received an advanced review copy through Edelweiss.]
[I received an advanced review copy through Edelweiss.]
February 28, 2022
A wonderful collection of poems by Kooser. I couldn't ask for more! The first publication from Pulley Press.
April 27, 2022
Wonderful. Just too short.
May 22, 2022
Small book, big thoughts. I still adore Kooser.
October 23, 2022
It's lovely to have the pleasure of seeing what Ted Kooser sees and happily shares with us readers. in a few poems, he sees beyond reality, a new view from his land to ponder.
October 31, 2022
Ted Kooser for President.
November 20, 2022
Get quiet and slow to receive.
August 23, 2023
Picked up this beautiful collection in an Omaha bookstore, the perfect souvenir to mark my late summer week in Nebraska.
August 24, 2023
A short poetry collection by Kooser.
beautiful peices.
beautiful peices.
August 28, 2023
A tasty little bite of prose.
January 22, 2024
My favorite of Ted's poetry collections so far. Great stories of middle American life. Highly recommend!!
April 21, 2023
This short collection consists of eighteen poems with a rural mid-American feel. As someone who grew up on a farm in the Midwest, the imagery really took me back.
A well-executed, if short, chapbook.
A well-executed, if short, chapbook.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews