It wasn't the type of poetry book Pulitzer Prize jurors usually fell for. It had a different tone. It was accessible instead of demanding. And so the staff at Copper Canyon Press wasn't sure what to do.

Should they spend $50 to nominate "Delights & Shadows" by Nebraska's Ted Kooser for one of the most prestigious prizes in literature?

"We were looking at Ted's book," Joseph Bednarik, marketing director of the nonprofit press, said Monday. "And we said: ‘You know, is this a good use of $50?'"

It was. On Monday, "Delights & Shadows" received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Kooser, who also just agreed to a second term as U.S. poet laureate, rose to the top of 196 entries in the poetry category to join a select rank of U.S. poets, including Robert Frost, Robert Penn Warren, Wallace Stevens and Stephen Dunn.

Kooser will be honored at a luncheon May 23 at Columbia University in New York, receiving a certificate and $10,000.

"This is something poets dream about happening," said Kooser, sitting outside his Garland farmhouse on Monday minutes after hearing he had won.

"I feel wonderful. I feel like I'm floating."

Colleagues of the 65-year-old retired insurance executive and English professor were equally ecstatic.

"This is fantastic, just fantastic," said Linda Pratt, chairwoman of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English Department. "We are riding high with joy and pleasure."

Pratt was just beginning a committee meeting Monday afternoon when a staff member handed her a note with the news.

She informed those gathered and, amid the cheering, someone said:  "We've all just levitated."

Kooser took a leave from teaching this year to tend to his laureate duties.

"I think it's terrific for him and for the university," said UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman. "He's a terrific person in addition to being an extraordinary poet."

Longtime friend and colleague Jonis Agee agreed.

"I think it's the best thing in the world," Agee said. "I think Ted's at the top of his powers right now."

Fellow poet  Leonard Nathan owns everything Kooser has written.

"I'm quite shocked but not surprised," he said. "There's a kind of interesting battle going on between accessible poets and those that are more obscure.

 "He is the perfect person for the award."

Kooser has published 10 volumes of poetry and prose and won numerous national awards — but none bigger than this.

As word of Kooser's prize spread, his phone started to ring at the farm with congratulations and interview requests.

"Thank you very much," he told a Washington Post reporter. "I'm thrilled, honored and all of that."

After the call, Kooser melted to the ground outside in mock exhaustion and lay curled on his side until his dogs, Alice and Howard, circled him, licking his face.

A few minutes later, sitting on the stoop, Kooser wiped his glasses with a red handkerchief and explained how he learned of the honor.

He'd met with a graduate student in the morning, then returned home to catch up on the 150 or so e-mails he receives each day from poetry fans.

Sitting at his computer, he opened an e-mail from the UNL Communications Department, congratulating him. After that, everything became a blur.

"I don't know what I did," he said. "I still don't know what I'm doing."

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet figured he wouldn't cook Monday night, even though it was his turn.

Maybe he and his wife, Lincoln Journal Star Editor Kathleen Rutledge, would go out to eat in celebration.

As his wife screened phone calls, the poet sat in the sun, letting it all sink in.

"I think I'm going to cry. This is really something."

Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com.