National Poetry Month 2024: Ted Kooser, John Ashbery, and Geoffrey Nutter
By Aleander Santos
From left to right: Geoffrey Nutter, John Ashbery, Ted Kooser
Although April comes to an end, it by no way entails that we should hold back our conversations about poetry. In honor of National Poetry Month, I have selected four poems from three of my favorite, most-read poets.
Ted Kooser’s poetry captures the quotidian without drab monotony and the experience of life in rural America. Kooser’s poems are great for first-time readers of poetry. His poems are approachable and read simply; his poems are conversational and almost prosaic. During the pandemic when I started to read poetry outside of the classroom, Kooser’s “The Sigh” was one of the poems that resonated with me the most. To be human is to read this poem and nod your head, then stare at the page for an unusually long time, then sit there uncomfortably still.
The Sigh, by Ted Kooser
You lie in your bed and sigh,
and the springs deep in the mattress
sing out with the same low note,
mocking your sadness. It’s hard—
not the mattress, but life.
Life is hard. All along
you thought you could trust in
your own bed, your own sorrow.
You thought you were sleeping alone.
John Ashbery has won nearly every major American award for poetry. An accomplished poet, he explored a variety of themes in his poetry, a small number of which discussed queer and same-sex themes. Although he kept his personal life private, Ashbery challenged heteronormativity and captured the queer experience through ambiguity and metaphor. Intimacy, fantasy, and guilt are all present in “My Erotic Double.” The hazy, dream-like depiction of desire and sexual exploration contrast the protagonist’s feelings of guilt and introspection—a reflection of the self-loathing imposed by social stigma and a culture of intolerance.
My Erotic Trouble, by John Ashbery
He says he doesn’t feel like working today.
It’s just as well. Here in the shade
Behind the house, protected from street noises,
One can go over all kinds of old feeling,
Throw some away, keep others.
The wordplay
Between us gets very intense when there are
Fewer feelings around to confuse things.
Another go-round? No, but the last things
You always find to say are charming, and rescue me
Before the night does. We are afloat
On our dreams as on a barge made of ice,
Shot through with questions and fissures of starlight
That keep us awake, thinking about the dreams
As they are happening. Some occurrence. You said it.
I said it but I can hide it. But I choose not to.
Thank you. You are a very pleasant person.
Thank you. You are too.
Geoffrey Nutter is a poet whose poetry I discovered not in an anthology or literary journal, but, of all places, TikTok. His daughter, Elaine runs a TikTok account (Poet Dad of TikTok) where she shares her father’s poetry and promotes his online poetry workshop. In her videos, she and her father share advice on how to approach the endeavor of writing poetry. The two poems I selected were published in his 2021 collection titled, “Giant Moth Perishes.” “Family Seated around a Table” paints a warm, comforting, and familiar scene of gathered loved ones sitting around the table at the end of the day. “Study of Blue” takes the reader through the craft of writing poetry and the practice of being observant.
Family Seated around a Table, by Geoffrey Nutter
Family seated at the table at the end of day:
a mother and father, presumably; and a girl of twelve.
The teacup and the kettle are cream with a green glaze.
The knife is silver. The utensils are apricot, and red,
and shaped like fish. And there they were:
small family seated around a table at the end of day.
For one of them, the nearly transparent teacup close at hand.
For another, the small book called Mustard Seed Garden.
And for the third an air of remoteness.
(Open the door to the next room a bit wider.
A houseplant with five fan-like leaves
on a glass-topped table in a bright room—
and a painting on the wall: a low horizon
of pale yellow hills, and a giant cloud
billowing up from behind them.)
At the end of day, the three people seated
at the table stayed very still. And on the table
between them: one egg the color of hyacinth,
roseate and glowing gently . . .
Study of Blue, by Geoffrey Nutter
Think of a poem, concise—
concise to the point of obscurity.
And it is very clear, with
the clarity of a simple thing
seen through blue lenses:
a blue chair in a nearly empty
room, a table with a tea set
laid out for glass dolls: nothing
stirs; a potted fern, its thin
fronds brushing the ceiling,
and a fan-like piece
of pink and desiccated coral
in a glass frame. Is it obscure?
There is no obfuscation, where
light is the obliterant, milk-blue,
shadowing the obverse side
of edible ferns. It is
oblivious to what is asked of it,
tall and nearly so blue that it
is a slab of pure obsidian,
made of pure and simple atoms—
blue atoms; it is perfect
Objectivity.
SPRING 2024
Aleander Santos is the editor-in-chief of REFRACT.
To read more about him, head to the masthead page.