A Gift from Ted Kooser

Heard Ted Kooser read this poem on PBS last night.


Daddy Longlegs
By Ted Kooser

Here, on fine long legs springy as steel,

a life rides, sealed in a small brown pill

that skims along over the basement floor

wrapped up in a simple obsession.

Eight legs reach out like the master ribs

of a web in which some thought is caught

dead center in its own small world,

a thought so far from the touch of things

that we can only guess at it.  If mine,

it would be the secret dream

of walking alone across the floor of my life

with an easy grace, and with love enough

to live on at the center of myself.


From Flying at Night Poems 1965-1985, by Ted Kooser