Ann Haley

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

These days are brim full of bad news about our economy—businesses closing, people losing their houses, their jobs. If there’s any comfort in a situation like this, it’s in the fact that there’s a big community of sufferers. Here’s a poem by Dana Bisignani, who lives in Indiana, that describes what it feels like to sit through a bankruptcy hearing.

Bankruptcy Hearing

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

This marks the fourth time we’ve published a poem by David Baker, one of my favorite writers. Baker lives in Granville, Ohio, and teaches at Denison University. He is also the poetry editor for the distinguished Kenyon Review.

Old Man Throwing a Ball

Beginning in March the U.S. Census Bureau once again undertakes the task of counting the entire population of the United States. Recognizing how census data collected every 10 years affect federal dollars allocated to education, transportation, and health care, CRRL supports the effort to make sure everyone in our jurisdictions gets counted to ensure that our community receives its fair share of federal funding.

It's being touted as one of the shortest forms in history, with just 10 questions that will take less than 10 minutes to fill out. Although the form cannot be completed online, you can see exactly which questions are included through the interactive form site here. 

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Often when I dig some change out of my jeans pocket to pay somebody for something, the pennies and nickels are accompanied by a big gob of blue lint. So it’s no wonder that I was taken with this poem by a Massachusetts poet, Gary Metras, who isn’t embarrassed.

Lint

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

A poem is an experience like any other, and we can learn as much or more about, say, an apple from a poem about an apple as from the apple itself. Since I was a boy, I’ve been picking up things, but I’ve never found a turtle shell until I found one in this poem by Jeff Worley, who lives in Kentucky.

On Finding a Turtle Shell in Daniel Boone National Forest

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

A honeymoon. How often does one happen according to the dreams that preceded it? In this poem, Wesley McNair, a poet from Maine, describes a first night of marriage in a tawdry place. But all’s well that ends well.

For My Wife

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

What might my late parents have thought, I wonder, to know that there would one day be an occupation known as Tooth Painter? Here’s a partial job description by Lucille Lang Day of Oakland, California.

Tooth Painter

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Animals are incapable of reason, or so we’ve been told, but we imaginative humans keep talking to our dogs and cats as if they could do algebra. In this poem, Ann Struthers looks into the mystery of instinctive behavior.

Not Knowing Why

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors, at their December 15, 2009, meeting awarded the CRRL a proclamation commending the library's recognition as a national Star Library.

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

My grandfather, when in his nineties, wrote me a letter in which he listed everything he and my uncle had eaten in the past week. That was the news. I love this poem by Nancyrose Houston of Seattle for the way it plays with the character of those letters from home that many of us have received.

The Letter From Home