Praying Hands - Ted Kooser
There is at least one pair
in every thrift shop in America,
molded in plastic or plaster of paris
and glued to a plaque,
or printed in church pamphlet colors
and framed under glass.
Today I saw a pair made out of
lightweight wire stretched over a pattern
of finishing nails.
this is the way faith goes
from door to door,
cast out of one and welcomed at another.
A butterfly presses its wings like that
as it rests between flowers.
Notes: I was asked to accompany my friend T to a book signing earlier this evening as he wanted me to meet a theologian friend of his. She had just written a memoir on leaving organized church for a more personal religion. As he was waiting in line to get his books signed (one of which was for me), I was looking at the small poetry rack they had in the store, and in this process picked up Ted Kooser's latest volume "Delights & Shadows".
I had read some of Kooser's poems in various anthologies, and more recently on the web when he was appointed as the current US Poet Laurate. I had first heard of Mr. Kooser in an essay titled "Business and Poetry" in Dana Gioia's "Can Poetry Matter?" (you can read the title essay here). The content of this essay dealt poets who make a living in business rather than taking shelter in the shady groves of Academia or depend on the kindness of strangers. In this essay, Mr. Gioia, who himself was a vice president of operations (which coincidentally is my professional field as well) at General Mills before he was become the head of the National Endownment for Arts (N.E.A), talks about poets such as William Carlos Williams (pediatrician), T. S. Eliot (banker), Wallace Stevens (corporate lawyer), and Ted Kooser (insurance), and how business did or did not impact their poetry.
Anyway, Mr. Kooser's poetry has a flavour and a presence similar to that of Wendell Berry's, a writer whose poems I enjoy and read often, usually in the outdoors. Consequently, I plan on exploring more of Mr. Kooser's poetry in the same fashion as well. Finally, these praying hands, as my friend T told me over dinner, are usually modeled after this classic print by Albrecht Durer.
Big Book Of Poetry
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