The guy is an incredible poet. I love a poem that tells a story as well as treats the reader to the beauty of language. Kooser is a master of both. He was the poet laureate of the U.S. from 2004 – 2006, and his book Delights & Shadows, which won the Pulitzer, is a fine mix of story-telling, imagery, and ordinary life.

Kooser was reading at the Metro Center in downtown Rochester on Thursday, so I went to check him out. He’s a small old guy with big ears (who describes himself as a hobbit), but he has a strong reading voice and a way of capturing a room. He read to a packed house of appreciative lit lovers, and his down-home Nebraska manner made everyone feel comfortable in his presence. He read for about 40 minutes and left us wanting more.

In the Q&A after the reading, he talked about some interesting personal experiences. He had a run in with mouth cancer, stage four, mighty serious stuff, from which he has fully recovered, and he spoke of how that changed his life as an artist and made him a better poet, how it helped him write about the things that were important to him and brought a certain humility to his work. He became more himself after the cancer, he said, and he could feel the honesty in his own work beginning to emerge. He also said that he loved to write about ordinary people doing ordinary things and find the extraordinary in it, and I think his poetry bears this out.

It was interesting to hear that Kooser was an insurance guy for 30 plus years, going to work and writing his poetry whenever he could get a little time. Let’s face it, most of us writers are like that. It’s nice to see that someone can work an everyday job and still reach the top. He had a pretty good sense of humor about his poetry and being a poet, too, which I found refreshing. He even quoted Heinlein: “A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.” Beware.

Here’s a press release from the event, which has some good bio information on Kooser and a picture that was taken Thursday night. If you’re ever in the mood for some great poetry, beautifully written, accessible and moving, try the hobbit. Highly recommended.