Ted Kooser is a two-time US Poet Laureate and the author of numerous poetry collections, including Delights & Shadows, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; Splitting an Order; Kindest Regards; and Cotton Candy (2022). As Poet Laureate he created “American Life in Poetry,” a free weekly column for newspapers, featuring a poem by a contemporary American writer. Born in Ames, Iowa, Kooser is a former vice president of Lincoln Benefit Life, where he worked as an insurance representative for many years. He is Presidential Professor Emeritus at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Photograph by Matt Valentine.

Meteor Shower and Other Poems

by Ted Kooser


Meteor Shower

Just before sunrise
I counted nine meteors
scratching the heavens,
just little scratches,
the kind a cat might make
while playing with a ball,
a great black cat
and an enormous ball
that glittered, everything
and all of us inside.

People on couch
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