Ted Kooser

In class, we discussed Ted Kooser’s “Blind” poem, to better ourselves in analyzing poetry. I found that I really liked the way that he styled his poems. They were simple thoughts and words written in a pretty simple structure, but each different aspect had a key place. I enjoyed that each word’s denotation would lead to another words connotation or denotation. The web that it created was fascinating to look at and connect to other pieces of the puzzle.

I was planning on doing a more in depth read for my blog, but when I tried to find the poem “Blind”, I could only find the poem that he wrote called “A Blind Woman”. I decided that I was just going to look at it, and see if it was at least similar, and this is when I decided that Ted Kooser is my favorite poet.

She had turned her face up into
a rain of light, and came on smiling.

The light trickled down her forehead
and into her eyes. It ran down

into the neck of her sweatshirt
and wet the white tops of her breasts.

Her brown shoes splashed on
into the light. The moment was like

a circus wagon rolling before her
through puddles of light, a cage on wheels,

and she walked fast behind it,
exuberant, curious, pushing her cane

through the bars, poking and prodding,
while the world cowered back in a corner.

I liked the imagery of the light that is streaming in. When I think of light I think of the little rainbows that show up and the happiness that it usually brings along. But the specific colors that Kooser uses are white and brown. These colors are extremely muted, which was ironic for a piece about being light and colorful. The other imagery that came from the repetition of the word light was joyous happiness and even the curiosity that follows a young girl. But then there is that repeated imagery that is somewhat of a caged animal. The “cage of wheels” and how she is “pushing through the bars” makes it seem like she is caged and only sees light on a small occasion.

This led me to think, is she literally caged within a prison cell, or caged within her own body? She cannot see, which can be told from the title (Blind), but that could mean that her eyes cannot see at all, or that she is blind to the outside world that she is trying so hard to get to. The bars could be that she cannot overcome the struggles that await her.

It also makes me think that she is a sort of animal that people want to see, but at the same time, want to keep their distance from at the same time. The speaker talks about seeing the circus wagons, but then she goes on to say “through the bars, poking and prodding,
while the world cowered back in a corner”. She’s the act that people hope to keep their distance from. But then that also lead me back to the question of what are they wanting to see from her. She might be blind to this as well. She might not see what they see.

This used to frustrate me about poetry that I could never have a clear answer to a question that I had. The poet wasn’t right there to explain the exact uses for the words that he had chosen. But this actually interests me. I like to think of all the different questions and actually using the text to support and disclaim the different theories that float through my head. Poetry is interesting once you find a poet that writes in a style that you prefer.