New Book . . . a Favorite Author

I went to Barnes & Noble this morning because I have been invited to a baby shower this Saturday afternoon. Included in the invitation was a little card stating "all the adorable outfits, blankets and toys so much fun to play, touch and look; rather, you are invited to bring your favorite baby or toddler nursery book." So I headed to the children's department and found what I wanted.

Then I went looking for the Valentine display. I wanted to see what was being offered. I was rather disappointed. Mostly, fancy personal journals and small boxes of chocolates. I wondered by they weren't displaying Ted Kooser's Valentines: Poems. So I went to the poetry section to take a look. It wasn't there either, but I did find another of Kooser's books. It was originally published in 1986 and was reissued in 2006. It was fairly inexpensive at $9.95, at least for a book, but it was the new introduction written by Kooser that grabbed my attention.

Kooser is a Nebraska resident and writes in this book about the Blizzard of 1888, also known as the "Schoolchildren's Blizzard" of January 12 and 13 of that year. He explains in the introduction, "The poems that follow are isolated voices heard in that blinding snowstorm as we know as the passage of time. . . . I snagged these poems from actual reminiscences, recorded in old age, of people who survived the most talked about storm in American history, . . . my sources are many. When I was boy there were people in my family, then in their seventies and eighties and nineties, who remembered . . . and from time to time talk about their experiences. I was bound by their spell as a only a child can be."

I was interested immediately. Kooser further explaines that the poems in this book have been performed as a play a number of years ago by the Lincoln, Nebraska, Community Playhouse. The intrigued me as well.

So this is my new book and my receipt came with a list of several of Kooser's other books. After getting back home, I searched online for more information about Kooser and found a interesting article about him by The Poetry Foundation.

It's been a very good day, and thanks for the comments and hearts on yesterday's entry.
Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka