Prize winner and best selling poet Ted Kooser calls attention to the intimacies of life through commonplace objects and occurrences: an elderly couple sharing a sandwich is a study in transcendent love, while a tattered packet of spinach seeds calls forth innate human potential. This long-awaited collection from the former U. S. Poet Laureate-ten years in the making-is rich with quiet and profound magnificence. From "Splitting an Order": I like to watch an old man cutting a sandwich in half… and then to see him lift halfonto the extra plate that he asked the server to bring, and then to wait, offering the plate to his wifewhile she slowly unrolls her napkin and places her spoon, her knife and her fork in their proper places, then smoothes the starched white napkin over her kneesand meets his eyes and holds out both old hands to him. Ted Kooser is the author of numerous books of poetry and prose, including Delights and Shadows (Copper Canyon Press), which won the Pulitzer Prize. A former US Poet Laureate, Kooser serves as editor for "American Life in Poetry," a nationally syndicated weekly newspaper column.
