Kooser’s Column 205 - Corned Beef and Cabbage

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes Feb 23, 2009

Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry

While serving as the U. S. Poet Laureate 2004 to 2006, Nebraska poet Ted Kooser launched his series of weekly columns called American Life in Poetry. These columns are offered free to newspapers to dramatize the value and just plain fun of poetry and to demonstrate how poetry enhances life in America.

Kooser’s Commentary

Kooser introduces the poem: “Memories have a way of attaching themselves to objects, to details, to physical tasks, and here, George Bilgere, an Ohio poet, happens upon mixed feelings about his mother while slicing a head of cabbage.”

The Poem

The first four lines:

I can see her in the kitchen,

Limited Midwestern repertoire.

To read the rest of this verse, please visit Column 205 .