From community members to eager college students, people of all ages flocked to the Watters Theater on Wednesday, March 22 at 8 p.m. to hear the words of Ted Kooser, the 13th Poet Laureate of the United States.
Kooser came to Binghamton University to receive the Binghamton Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, which is given for the strongest book of poems published in a year by a poet over 40 years old.
He also taught a two-hour writing workshop earlier in the day which was open to 30 participants, most of whom were creative writing undergrad or graduate students.
Kooser agreed to speak at Binghamton as the recipient of the award one day before he was granted the Pulitzer Prize for the same book, titled “Delights & Shadows.” In addition to being the current Poet Laureate, Kooser also has a Binghamton Book Award to his credit.
Born in Ames, Iowa in 1939, Kooser has been a prolific poet, credited with ten collections of poetry.
Some of his works include “Sure Signs,” for which he received the Society of Midland Authors Prize, and “Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison” which won the 2001 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry.
“Poetry can touch us and our lives in ways that are distinctive from other forms of art,” University President Lois Defleur said, in her introduction of Kooser.
Kooser read 22 of his works, and each elicited a distinct response from his captivated audience.
He accompanied his poems with illuminating stories, in addition to giving some insight into his inspirations and techniques in both his workshop and poetry reading.
“I try to find the most ordinary things to write about, then I decorate it,” Kooser said before reading his poem “Spiral Notebook.”
“I spend a lot of my time watching things happen. I like to write about life from some distance,” he said.
Dana Haitkin, a freshman English major with a concentration in creative writing, who attended his workshop, said Kooser spoke of his personal experiences as a poet.
“It’s always inspiring to see where you can get as a writer,” she said in admiration of the poet.
She went on to explain Kooser’s prompt in which the group had to write a paragraph describing a feeling without mentioning it.
Many of Kooser’s poems are about simple things or actions he finds beautiful. He read a poem about his father’s nuances and a poem about a weather man’s gestures. His variety of topics is what many feel makes Kooser such a popular poet.
Kooser lent some advice to aspiring writers: “Read. Reading is the most important thing. Read one hundred poems for every one you try to write.”