Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems (Pitt Poetry Series)

Ted Kooser is my favorite poet. Simple, down to earth, but deep as a well. and masterfully written. A modern Sandburg for the 21st century.Buy this book if you love writing and simple but profound analogies that anyone can appreciate.

From the vacant rooms in "An Empty Place" (p. 44) and "North of Alliance" (p. 51) to the forsaken pastures of "Abandoned Farmhouse" (p. 64), the cold Midwestern landscape of Ted Kooser's Sure Signs seems, at times, the picture of neglect. While the `empty house' in "North of Alliance" has seemingly "nothing / to tell us the style of people / who lived here," the "Abandoned Farmhouse" speaks sorrowful volumes of its former inhabitants. In the narratives of these poems characters are known only by their absence, defined only by the traces they leave behind.But amidst the gloom of abandoned spaces and anxieties about silence, Kooser shows the reader the permanency of hope and of belief. The dismantled church in "The Red Wing Church" (p. 81)--parts from which now decorate gardens, porches and the mayor's house--is undeniably "still a church." And the ringing church bell in "Sunday Morning" (p. 93) blares out deafeningly at the end of the collection as it "tolls its thankfulness." Churches, in this collection, become a symbol not so much of the theology that built them, but of the congregations they shelter from an indifferent natural world.Though the landscape in this collection is scarred by the ravages of time, and many of its inhabitants have departed, Kooser shows the reader sure signs of the lives they lived and of the things in which they believed. It is a collection that bares reflection for its strange mix of nostalgia and contemplation of the deepest problems of modern life. Sure Signs is Kooser's answer to what turn-of-the-century German sociologist George Simmel described as "the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life." Though personal histories in this collection are subverted by a common history that connects person to person and generation to generation, it remains an exploration of tragedies so heart-rending they could only occur on a personal level.

Kooser is one of my all time favorite poets. His writing is such a great was to press pause on your life and remember why its beautiful. Even his sad reflective poems make me happy.

What a terrific poet. This collection is not as good as "Delights and Shadows" but is very good anyway. If you have read Kooser poetry you'll like it. If you've never read him, but would like to, get "Delights and Shadows"

Book came in exactly the same way it was described. Good time on delivery.If you have not yet discovered Ted Kooser's poetry, give it a try.