Lights on a Ground of Darkness: An Evocation of a Place and Time [Paperback]

Ted Kooser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

Like the yellow, pink, and blue irises that had been transplanted from house to house over the years, the stories of poet Ted Kooser’s family had been handed down until, as his mother lay ill and dying, he felt an urgency to write them down. With a poet’s eye for detail, Kooser captures the beauty of the landscape and the vibrancy of his mother’s Iowa family, the Mosers, in precise, evocative language.

 

The center of the family’s love is Kooser’s uncle, Elvy, a victim of cerebral palsy. Elvy’s joys are fishing, playing pinochle, and drinking soda from the ice chest at his father’s roadside Standard Oil station. Kooser’s grandparents, their kin, and the activities and pleasures of this extended family spin out and around the armature of Elvy’s blessed life.

 

Kooser has said that writing this book was the most important work he has ever undertaken because it was his attempt to keep these beloved people alive against the relentless erosion of time.

(20090920)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Written in a prose as spare as a winter sunset, [Lights on a Ground of Darkness] is an elegy, not just for Kooser''s forebears but for all of us."—David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times

(David L. Ulin Los Angeles Times 20090801)

"Kooser gratefully squeezes every drop from his memories of these long-departed people and what they told him of even longer-departed forebears. . . . A tiny gem of remembrance that resonates with certain passages of Willa Cather, James Agee, and Wendell Berry."—Ray Olson, Booklist

(Ray Olson Booklist 20090831)

"In this brief book, just 72 pages long, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. poet laureate describes his family in precise, evocative prose."—Publishers Weekly

(Publishers Weekly 20090831)

"Kooser''s book is a gift—his irises are open wide, and his book will open those of his readers, to fully appreciate the fragility of life and a family''s love."—Dan Coffey, ForeWord

(Dan Coffey ForeWord )

"Few of us can write as well as Ted Kooser, but we should, like him, overcome the stumbling block of perfection. We all have stories to tell of a place and a time and a people, and our children and grandchildren ought to know those stories, book-worthy or not. His book is one model, and a good one, of how we might go about doing it."—Tom Wylie, Bloomsbury Review

(Tom Wylie Bloomsbury Review )

"I recently transplanted the tubers of some of my grandmother''s prize-winning irises from her Nebraska garden into my backyard; her garden is diminishing now, as she cannot care for it as she once did. Kooser''s book reminds me why I love irises above all flowers—they are as frivolous as any other flower, I suppose, but they are packed with history, because they multiply and the only way to keep them thriving is to divide and share them. When irises bloom, they are young again, just as the people Kooser writes about are when he shares his precise observations. Any reader who has ever considered writing his own family history can read Lights on a Ground of Darkness and be inspired."—Jenny Shank, NewWest.com

(Jenny Shank NewWest.com )

About the Author

Ted Kooser, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and former U.S. poet laureate, is Presidential Professor of the University of Nebraska. He is the author of twelve books of poetry, including Valentines (Nebraska 2008) and The Blizzard Voices (available in a Bison Books edition). His award-winning prose book, Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps, is also available in a Bison Books edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080322642X
• ISBN-13: 978-0803226425
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ted Kooser was the United States Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006 and won a Pulitzer Prize for his book of poems DELIGHTS AND SHADOWS. He is the author of twelve full-length volumes of poetry and several books of nonfiction, and his work has appeared in many periodicals. This is his first children's book. He lives in Garland, Nebraska.Barry Root has illustrated many books for children, including THE CAT WHO LIKED POTATO SOUP by Terry Farish and THE BIRTHDAY TREE by Paul Fleischman. He lives in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lights on a Ground of Darkness: An Evocation of a Place and Time, October 29, 2009

By 

David R. Kaloupek "Hawkeye" (Waltham, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lights on a Ground of Darkness: An Evocation of a Place and Time (Paperback)

I recently visited Elberon, Iowa, pop. 103+/-. My grandfather owned a service station with gas pumps, mechanic and blacksmith plus bulk fuel delivery businesses. Town people in and entities in Elberon served the area's family farmers.

I remember Elberon was a crossroad for the Northwestern and Milwaukee Road railway companies and an emergency stop on the Lincoln Highway. Today, most businesses, the 80-120 acre family farm and rail right-of-ways have long disappeared.

The survivors: Main Street, the water tower, Methodist Church; U.S. Post Office, fire station, grain elevator, bulk oil & propane business and my Grandfather's service station (now owned by his great grandson) plus a new community center with library and new "The General Store" (serving beverages, meals & milk/bread/videos).

"Lights...." triggered many great and interesting memories. I enjoyed the people, experiences and events of my early life through the experiences, senses and pen of Ted Kooser. Thank you to Ted for sharing his personal adventure and family's history. Thanks to NPR for introducing me to Ted Kooser and his work.

David Kaloupek
Circa `39
Tama County, IA

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Poet's Origin, October 25, 2009

By 

J. K. Campbell (Lincoln,NE) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lights on a Ground of Darkness: An Evocation of a Place and Time (Paperback)

Viewing the world from his rural perspective in Nebraska's Bohemian Alps, Mr. Kooser continues to remind us that the complexities of our lives are woven from the simplest of threads. This loving memoir demonstrates that his acute observational skills as a poet were already present in childhood. Although this slim volume of prose describes people who have long since departed, Ted has now insured that they will never be forgotten.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Careful, attentive descriptions reveals an uncommon image of midwestern history., December 22, 2009

By 

Palimpsest "Palimpsest" (minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lights on a Ground of Darkness: An Evocation of a Place and Time (Paperback)

Careful, delicate, reverent description pays homage to Kooser's mother's family. Beautifully evoking the Turkey River valley of northeastern Iowa, and the people who lived there in the nineteenth and twentieth century, this brief memoir is a corrective to the dour and dreary portraits of midwestern settlers. Black elms growing up the cliffs behind his grandparents' house, with the limestone bluffs of Wisconsin blinking across the river, invite the reader to savor every element of an overlooked landscape. The book is full of interesting tidbits: "In the 1840s, an artist named Henry Lewis . . . painted a panorama of the Mississippi, from the falls of St. Anthony to New Orleans, on a roll of canvas twelve feet high and 1,325 yards long. The canvas was meant to be scrolled past the proscenium of a theater during a lecture." From the story of Harvey, a talented musician discovered in Clayton County who tours the world with the best orchestras, only to return to the home place when arthritis slows him down, to the grandfather whose life encompassed, on one end, the invention of barb wire and, on the other, the atomic bomb, Kooser captures the fragility of time and the human capacity to adapt to change. Full of beautiful, attentive images such as a childhood glimpse of the white of a field mouse's belly as it naps under the leaf of a tulip vine, as well as the four white columns of smoke from the cemetery as the gravediggers warm the frozen ground for his grandmother's burial, this book is a breathtaking portrait of "the center of our love."