Those who attended the reading Ted Kooser gave on Wednesday, November 16, as part of the Adamson Writers Series, were pleased with his offering as indicated by thunderous applause at the reading's conclusion.

Kooser is the United States of America's thirteenth and current Poet Laureate, a position elected by the Librarian of Congress. Originally from Iowa and living in Nebraska, Kooser is the first Poet Laureate chosen from the Great Plains area of the country. Kooser has published books with the Pittsburgh Press and the Carnegie Mellon Press, and his work has been published in The New Yorker and The Hudson Review. His most recent book is Delights & Shadows, which won him the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He has received other honors such as the National Education Association's Fellowship and Merit Award from the Nebraska Arts Council.

Kooser, who used to be in life insurance (not sales, he emphasized), was thrown out of graduate school, though he does hold a Master's degree from the University of Nebraska. When a job in insurance presented itself, Kooser took it because he could write in the morning from 4 to 7 a.m. before work. Kooser would show his poetry to his secretary and if she said, "I don't get it," he knew he had to work on it some more.

Kooser seems a very down-to-earth man considering the amount of praise and accolades that surround him. Kooser said the whole experience surrounding his selection as Poet Laureate has been "quite a time for [him]… a person could get terribly puffed up." However, Kooser does not seem to have let the position, or the praise he has received, go to his head.

Kooser read many poems for his Carnegie Mellon audience. Although Kooser spoke in a sharply conversational manner, he slipped into a voice that sounded like he was telling a secret, intimate story whenever he began to read.Between poems, he described what inspires his poetry. For example, he explained that he wrote "Morning Walks" while recovering from cancer therapies.

"I was going through head and neck radiation and I was pretty bleak," said Kooser. "The doctors told me to stay out of the sun because my skin was sensitive. So, I started taking walks early before the sun."

When he got home each morning he would write a poem, which he would tape onto a postcard and send to a colleague in the writing world and friend, Jim Harrison. Over the course of that winter, Kooser wrote 150 poems, but he pared them down to 100 to submit for publication.

Many of his poems are based on gestures of some sort. "In Passing" is one of those. The gesture it is based upon is that which occurs when a person is walking on the street and sees someone far off and thinks he or she recognizes the person as a friend. The closer the two get, the energy between them builds. When they pass, there is an exchange like polar opposite magnets and they repel away from each other.

Kooser also writes about family members, especially those on his mother's side. One of the poems Kooser read was about his mom's cousin Ira, an 88-year-old farmer who had developed a dark age spot on his hand that went up into his sleeve, a physical feature that was included in Kooser's poem. Kooser's mother's death and the subsequent meetings with relatives inspired many poems.

Kooser's humor shone through when he described how every year for the last 20 years he has written Valentine's Day poems and sent them to the wives of his friends. He explained that some of his friends object, but some simply return the favor by sending poems to Mrs. Kooser. Kooser now has 1300 women on the Valentine's list, and he invited the women in the Carnegie Mellon audience to write their names and three-line addresses on slips of paper and to give them to him after the reading to get on the list as well.

After concluding, Kooser opened the floor to questions from the audience. Along with the usual questions such as, "Do you like what you write?" ("For about five minutes," Kooser replied), the audience prompted him with technical questions: "What's the farther-further distinction?" one audience member asked, in reference to one of Kooser's poems that featured both words.

Samuel Harr, Master's student in the English Department, asked, "If you could pick favorite poet right now, who would be?"

"One poet right now is John Clare, who was writing some 200 years ago," Kooser answered, saying Clare wrote "very fresh descriptions of the natural world." Kooser also named the contemporary Swedish poet Thomas Transtroemer, who, according to Kooser, writes with startling metaphor. Although Transtroemer has written little, Kooser considers his few poems to be "gems."

To the old standard question, "Why did you start writing?" Kooser gave the not-so-standard answer of, "Girls." Kooser said he had nothing going for himself in high school and when he saw poets' pictures in the paper, they were always surrounded by beautiful women. In an attempt to be mysterious, interesting, and different, Kooser wanted to look like a poet, but then he "got hooked on poems."

Kooser's poems are as deep with meaning as they are simple in their conveyance. Both he and his works are plain spoken but bursting with meaning and purpose. Both are also laced with humor and an appreciation for the human condition that only one who has survived a potentially deadly illness can have. As the country falls in love with its newest addition to the Poet Laureate pool, the art of poetry is gaining new fans.

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