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This morning Aidan (my six year old son) and I sat for an hour together watching Ted Kooser read his poetry to a packed hall at UC Santa Barbara in August of 2005. Kooser has such a gentle and honest style. He helps us notice the simple magnificence that surrounds us all. It was an [...]

Of your own accord
Training wheels discarded
On the garage floor.
With my fingers through my hair
I said sure.
We hit the black top
Lot next door,
Knowing the fragility of self–
Esteem and bones.
Like that drunken teenager
I remember from years ago
On his bike by the Taco Bell,
I smiled and held my breath
And watched you crash
Into the chain-link fence,
Cheating most certain death;
You [...]

I’ll be teaching poetry writing for the first time in the fall, so I need to consider what I’ll ask the students to read. Beyond a collection of poetry, I wanted a kind of textbook, but not a textbook, if you know what I mean. I’m thinking about Ted Kooser’s Poetry Home Repair Manual. [...]