Praise for Raft

"Affirms his genius for capturing simple folks, like a man raking his yard or a worker gathering grocery carts, with a
beauty that tells us every soul has dignity."--Danny Heitman, NOLA.com

"Kooser has always been concerned with isolating moments and places that would have been easily missed or forgotten had he not chosen to memorialize them. People, of course, have played a significant part in those poems, but Raft is particularly keen to remind us of the importance of our fellow humans who have been relegated to the margins."--David Starkey, California Review of Books

"For more than half a century . . . Kooser has been looking attentively at the world, translating his vision of it with a painter's eye, a composer's ear and a poet's intuition for metaphor, and offering short, clear, alluring poems so that his readers, too, can 'see the life at play in everything.'"--John Cusatis, Post & Courier

"Raft is a book of great variety. . . . If Kooser has doubts about the value of his work, thank goodness he's writing and publishing it anyway. Raft is an excellent book and a welcome extension of an essential oeuvre."--Robert M. West, Asheville Poetry Review

Praise for Ted Kooser

"Ted Kooser . . . has a genius for making the ordinary sacred." --New York Times

"Kooser's poetry is understated yet manages to skillfully illuminate the small moments of life."--Christian Science Monitor

"[Kooser] brushes poems over ordinary objects, revealing metaphysical themes the way an investigator dusts for fingerprints. His language is so controlled and convincing that one can't help but feel significant truths behind his lines."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"There is a sense of quiet amazement at the core of all Kooser's work."--Edward Hirsch, Washington Post

"Kooser is a master of the subjective description. Empathetic without sentimentality, his eye ranges over all sorts of everyday subjects and finds material everywhere wherever the unpredictable particularity of the world can be glimpsed."--Georgia Review