Quotes from Ted Kooser

a storm that walked on legs of lightning, dragging its shaggy belly over the fields.

There are mornings when everything brims with promise, even my empty cup.

Sometimes you sense how faithfully your life is delivered, even though you can't read the address.

Turtle has just one plan at a time, and every cell buys into it.

This evening, I sat by an open window and read till the light was gone and the book was no more than a part of the darkness....

a happy birthday this evening, I sat by an open window and read till the light was gone and the book was no more than a part of the darkness. I could easily have switched on a lamp, but I wanted to ride the day down into night, to sit alone, and smooth the unreadable page with the pale gray ghost of my hand

Valentine's Day is the poet's holiday.

When she left me I stood out in the thunderstorm, hoping to be destroyed by lightning. It missed, first left, then right.

Pocket Poem" If this comes creased and creased again and soiled as if I'd opened it a thousand times to see if what I'd written here was right, it's all because I looked too long for you to put in your pocket. Midnight says the little gifts of loneliness come wrapped by nervous fingers. What I wanted this to say was that I want to be so close that when you find it, it is warm from me.

I now know that I was in the presence of the only angels we are ever likely to make the acquaintance of: teachers blessed with the love of small people who are trying to find their place in the world.

She'd had little patience with darkness, and her heart held only a measure of shadow. I touched the warm dust of those colors, her tools, and left there with light on the tips of my fingers.

Mother (fragment) ...You asked me if I would be sad when it happened and I am sad. But the iris I moved from your house now hold in the dusty dry fists of their roots green knives and forks as if waiting for dinner, as if spring were a feast. I thank you for that. Were it not for the way you taught me to look at the world, to see the life at play in everything, I would have to be lonely forever.

Wisdom is easy to carry but difficult to load.

His hands fluttered like birds, each with a fancy silk ribbon to weave into their nest, as he stood at the mirror dressing for work, waving hello to himself with both hands.

It is all around us, free, this wonderful life: clear jingle of tire chains, the laughter of ice that breaks under our boots. Each hour's a gift to those who take it up.

I like the idea of there being times when even words cost so much you used them sparingly. I have known a lot of old men and women who talked as if they were paying Western Union by the word.

a storm that walked on legs of lightning, dragging its shaggy belly over the fields.

I feel the bear's heart in her footprints.

Sometimes all it takes to be happy is a dime on the sidewalk.

The blind man navigates by stars behind the daylight.

After all, there's a significant service to humanity in spending time doing no harm,

Dust too is drawn on wings to light.

Stars from horizon to horizon. A whole half universe just to light the path.

Coyote hunting can't be justified on the basis of the damage they do. Shooting coyotes is really just fun, a man with a high-powered rifle trying to see if he can kill a frightened creature that can't shoot back.