Kooser named U.S. poet laureate
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BY CINDY LANGE-KUBICK/ Lincoln Journal Star
Originally published 8.12.2004
His is a voice that has been called contemplative and clear. Wise and wry. Now Nebraska poet Ted Kooser joins the collective echo of Robert Frost, Robert Penn Warren and Gwendolyn Brooks as the nation’s official voice for poetry.
The English professor and retired insurance executive will be named U.S. poet laureate by the Library of Congress today.
The phone call from the Library of Congress came late Friday.
“Never in my remotest imagination did (I believe) that something like this would happen to me,” the poet said from his home near Garland.
“I was dumbstruck for some time before I babbled some sort of reply.”
A few days later he called back with his formal answer.
“I said, ‘I’d be honored to accept.’”
In a statement released Wednesday, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington praised the Nebraska poet.
“Ted Kooser is a major poetic voice for rural and small town America, and the first Poet Laureate chosen from the Great Plains. His verse reaches beyond his native region to touch on universal themes in accessible ways.”
Said fellow poet and longtime friend Don Welch: “It’s just the finest tribute, I think, for both Ted and for the state of Nebraska.”
Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, has long been a Kooser fan.
“Ted Kooser demonstrates that you can be both accessible and truly excellent,” Gioia said. “He’s the sort of poet people love to read.”
Kooser is the author of 10 collections of poetry, including “Delights and Shadows,” published this year, “Sure Signs” and “Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison,” winner of the 2001 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry.
Harrison, poet, novelist and screenwriter, spoke highly of his fellow writer Wednesday.
“He is a brilliant poet,” Harrison said. “He’s a genius poet.”
Harrison and Kooser — who co-authored “Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry” — have been friends for 15 years. Harrison admired Kooser’s work for 15 years before that.
“If he had been living all these years in New York, he probably would have been massively popular as a poet,” said Harrison. “He’s long overdue for recognition.”
Officially named the “Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress,” the wordy title gives maximum freedom to its recipients, allowing them to work on their own projects during eight-month appointments.
The laureate is required to give an annual lecture and reading of his or her poetry and generally chooses and introduces poets for the library’s annual poetry series.
Laureates also are charged with creating a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry, through whatever means they see fit.
Past Poet Laureate Maxine Kumin began a popular women’s series of poetry workshops. Howard Nemerov conducted seminars for high school English classes. Joseph Brodsky initiated the idea of providing poetry in supermarkets, airports and other public places.
Although his mind has been occupied — “every minute” — with his appointment for nearly a week now, Kooser hasn’t settled on a project.
“I’ve given some fleeting thoughts to that. Nothing I’m ready to share yet.”
Kooser will receive a $35,000 stipend and will serve from October to May 2005, although a reappointment is possible. The current poet laureate, Louise Gluck, served one term, but her predecessor, Billy Collins, served two appointments and Robert Pinsky three.
The position has existed since 1936 (although the title changed in 1986) and many of the nation’s most eminent poets have served in the position. Robert Penn Warren. Frost. Maxine Kumin. Rita Dove. Karl Shapiro.
Shapiro was a teacher and mentor of Kooser’s at the University of Nebraska.
“I admire everyone on that list,” said Kooser. “These are all American writers of great stature.”
Born in Ames, Iowa, Kooser began writing poems as a young boy, turning to the art form more seriously in his late teens.
“I’ve written or thought about poetry practically every day of my life since.”
He earned his bachelor’s degree at Iowa State University in 1962 and his master’s degree at the University of Nebraska in 1968. He is married to Kathleen Rutledge, editor of the Lincoln Journal Star, and has one grown son and a granddaughter from his first marriage.
Kooser has received two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Pushcart Prize, the Stanley Kunitz Prize, the James Boatwright Prize and a Merit Award from the Nebraska Arts Council.
Retired from Lincoln Benefit Life since the spring of 1999, he is a visiting English professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
He will take a hiatus from teaching this year to give full attention to his new position.
Harrison sees great things ahead for his longtime friend. And he predicts a detour in his slow-down-and-see-the-world-in-front-of-you lifestyle.
Kooser’s idea of a good time is to frequent the cafe with the “real deal on pork roast” in Dwight and “go to yard sales and wander around with his dog,” said Harrison.
That may change. He will make at least four trips to the Library of Congress in Washington to read and work in the coming months.
And his phone will begin to ring with interview requests and demands on his time.
After the success of “Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps,” a collection of short essays that won ForeWord magazine’s gold award in autobiography and was a finalist for Barnes & Noble’s Discover New Writers Award, Kooser stepped into a more rarified literary world.
Now, the slightly reclusive Kooser will be required to step even further onto the national stage.
“One thing that has held back Ted’s career is that essential sort of Nebraska modesty,” said Harrison.
“That kind of modesty largely no longer occurs … and now it’s too late to be modest.”
Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com.
The Blind Always Come as Such a Surprise
The blind always come as such a surprise,
suddenly filling an elevator
with a great white porcupine of canes,
or coming down upon us in a noisy crowd
like the eye of a hurricane.
The dashboards of cars stopped at crosswalks
and the shoes of commuters on trains
are covered with sentences
struck down in mid-flight by the canes of the blind.
Each of them changes our lives,
tapping across the bright circles of our ambitions
like cracks traversing the favorite china.
(From “Sure Signs,” 1980)
A Spiral Notebook
The bright wire rolls like a porpoise
in and out of the calm blue sea
of the cover, or perhaps like a sleeper
twisting in and out of his dreams,
for it could hold a record of dreams
if you wanted to buy it for that,
though it seems to be meant for
more serious work, with its
college-ruled lines and its cover
that states in emphatic white letters,
5 SUBJECT NOTEBOOK. It seems
a part of growing old is no longer
to have five subjects, each
demanding an equal share of attention,
set apart by brown cardboard dividers,
but instead to stand in a drugstore
and hang on to one subject
a little too long, like this notebook
you weigh in your hands, passing
your fingers over its surfaces
as if it were some kind of wonder.
(From “Delights & Shadows,” 2004)
RHYME AND REASON
* The U.S. poet laureate is appointed annually by the librarian of Congress to serve an eight-month term from October to May.
* The laureate receives a $35,000 stipend.
* Duties include giving an annual lecture and reading of his or her poetry, and introducing poets in the library’s annual poetry series.
* Laureates are asked to bring the nation to a greater appreciation of poetry through projects of their own choosing.
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