Raft is our fourth collection of poetry from Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser. Open in his desire to write for the everyday reader, these poems maintain the open-handed and accessible style that thousands have come to love. Yet, deeply imagistic and metaphorically rich, Raft shows us that even the simplest of objects, the simplest of actions, can become a portal. A boy feeding a goldfish becomes a meditation on loneliness. Scraps of gauze open the door to a study on happiness. Both local and delightfully universal, Raft travels the Midwest landscape, attuned to the shared experiences and emotions of life–illness and aging, beauty and love. Some poems, nostalgia-wrapped, cradle elegies for lost family and friends. Adrift on life rafts of language, this book is a lesson in intentional observation, a celebration of the small, quiet wonders of life.

Boy Feeding a Goldfish

There’s a dance to it, first the boy
curtseying to peer through the glass
as the brown sprinkles drift down,

then bobbing back up to watch
his finger and thumb as they pinch
and sprinkle more food, again

and again, to a soft music that only
he hears. If there were someone
to dance with, his partner could

take hold of those fingers and
give him a twirl, but this morning
he’s once again dancing alone,

bowing and bobbing and bowing
in light passing through frost
on a window, snow falling beyond,

winter light filling the clear bulb
of the bowl with a glow, and his
one fish a bright filament burning.