Kooser’s American Life in Poetry

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes Jan 5, 2008

Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006, features Rynn Williams’ poem, “Insomnia,” in his most recent column. About the poem, Kooser says, “If one believes television commercials, insomnia, that thief of sleep, torments humans in ever-increasing numbers. Rynn Williams, a poet working in Brooklyn, New York, tries here to identify its causes and find a suitable remedy.”

The following lines offer a sample of “Insomnia”:

I try tearing paper into tiny, perfect squares—

they cut my fingers. Warm milk, perhaps,

stirred counter-clockwise in a cast iron pan—

but even then there's burning at the edges,

angry foam-hiss their pens.

To read the entire poem, please see Column 145 at American Life in Poetry.

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