There’s an old country-western song with the refrain, “That’s what happens when two worlds collide,” and in this poem by Bruce Guernsey, who divides his year between Illinois and Maine, we see a near collision between two worlds. Back Roadmore…
Tag Archives: ted kooser
American Life in Poetry: Column 416
This kite-flying poem caught me right up and sent me flying as soon as Robert Gibb described those dimestore kites furled tighter than umbrellas, a perfect image. Gibb lives in Pennsylvania. Kites Come March we’d find them In the five-and-dimes,more…
American Life in Poetry: Column 415
I’ve recently published a children’s book about a man who is so fussy about his yard that he loses his home, so I was immediately taken by this fine poem by Lynne Sharon Schwartz about a similar man. We allmore…
American Life in Poetry: Column 414
When spring finally arrives, it can be fun to see what winter left behind, and Jeffrey Harrison of Massachusetts is doing just that in this amusing poem. Mailboxes in Late Winter It’s a motley lot. A few still stand atmore…
American Life in Poetry: Column 413
Every day, hundreds of thousands of us are preoccupied with keeping up a civil if not loving relationship with our parents. In this poem, Mark Irwin (who lives in Colorado) does a beautiful job in portraying, in a dreamlike manner,more…
American Life in Poetry: Column 412
Mark Sanders, who lives in Texas, is not only a good poet, but he’s an old friend to the poetry of my home ground, working hard as teacher, editor, and publisher to bring Great Plains poetry to the attention ofmore…
American Life in Poetry: Column 411
It seems that love poems have a better chance of being passed around from person to person than other poems, and here’s one by Richard M. Berlin, who lives in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, that we’d like tomore…
American Life in Poetry: Column 410
If you’ve followed this column through a good part of the seven years we’ve been publishing it, you know how hooked I am on poems that take a close look at the ordinary world. Here’s a fine poem by Eamonmore…
American Life in Poetry: Column 408
Here’s a lovely poem for the caregivers among us, by Terri Kirby Erickson, who lives in North Carolina. Sponge Bath Draped in towels, my grandmother sits in a hard-backed chair, a white bowl of soapy water on the floor. Shemore…
American Life in Poetry: Column 407
Kansas is flat and we all know that. So, where does a boy go when he feels like sledding down a hill? Casey Pycior, raised in Kansas, tells us. Sledding in Wichita As cars pass, laboring through the slush, amore…
American Life in Poetry: Column 406
Another winter is upon us, and Barton Sutter, a poet who lives in Duluth, knows all about cold and snow. Here’s a preview to get us thinking about what’s in store for us. A Little Shiver After the news, themore…
American Life in Poetry: Column 405
When we began this column in 2005, I determined not to include any of my own poems because I wanted to introduce our readers to the work of as many of the other American poets as I could. But frommore…
