A Poem for a Thursday #24 - Holds Upon Happiness

Ted Kooser is “widely praised for his plainspoken style, his gift for metaphor, and his quiet discoveries of beauty in ordinary things.” He served as a Poet Laureate and is spoken of as the voice of small-town America. His style is simple and natural.

Today, from a distance, I saw you
walking away, and without a sound
the glittering face of a glacier
slid into the sea. An ancient oak
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only
a handful of leaves, and an old woman
scattering corn to her chickens looked up
for an instant. At the other side
of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times
the size of our own sun exploded
and vanished, leaving a small green spot
on the astronomer’s retina
as he stood in the great open dome
of my heart with no one to tell.

After Years
Ted Kooser