Kindest Regards. Ted Kooser

Office

      10  Ames By-Products

      11  Helmet

      12  By Flowing Water

      13  An Antique Teacup

      14  Parents

      15  Death of a Dog

      16  A Line in the Rain

       2

      1  A February Walk

      2  In Early April

      3  Roadside

      4  Three Steps in the Grass

      5  Snapping Turtle

      6  A Summer Afternoon with Clouds

      7  Nash

      8  A Marriage

      9  An Appearance

      10  Walking in Fog beside a Lake

      11  The Constellation

      12  Turning Up the Thermostat

      13  A Yellow Rope

      14  Hoarfrost

      15  Moon Shadows

      16  December Morning

       3

      1  A Man on a Bridge

      2  Arabesque

      3  On a Windy Day

      4  People We Will Never See Again

      5  Passing Through

      6  Laundromat

      7  Landing

      8  Piano

      9  Smoke Rings

      10  Two by the Road

      11  Richard

      12  Brueghel: Hunters in the Snow

      13  Firewood

      14  Card Trick

      15  Three Shadows

      16  A Long Midwinter Walk

      17  Waxer

        Index of Titles

        Index of First Lines

        About the Author

        Also by Ted Kooser

        Notes and Acknowledgments

        Copyright

        Special thanks

      from Sure Signs

      1980

      Selecting a Reader

      First, I would have her be beautiful,

      and walking carefully up on my poetry

      at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,

      her hair still damp at the neck

      from washing it. She should be wearing

      a raincoat, an old one, dirty

      from not having money enough for the cleaners.

      She will take out her glasses, and there

      in the bookstore, she will thumb

      over my poems, then put the book back

      up on its shelf. She will say to herself,

      “For that kind of money, I can get

      my raincoat cleaned.” And she will.

      First