Reading Poetry

Here's my weekly/ daily/ whenever-I-can-manage-it poetry fix. Even prose writers can learn a lot from poetry.
My friend Ann reported in on this year's Dodge Poetry Festival. Click that link to see what you, and I, missed. Billy Collins calls it the "mother of all poetry readings." Some call it Wordstock. In the past, our Critique Group has gone together. This year Ann went without us. Our loss.

Ann told us about Ted Kooser's reading, which reminded me that I have a book of his, given to me by a poetry-loving friend. So I'm thumbing through the book and remembered why she thought I'd like it (one of the many reasons). I once mentioned Praying Hands in something I wrote. The daughter of a preacher compares her hands to her daddy's statue of hands, and right there on p. 57 is this. I'll give you a few lines to tempt you to read more of Ted Kooser's poetry:

Praying Hands
from DELIGHTS AND SHADOWS

There is at least one pair
in every thrift shop in America,
molded in plastic or plaster of paris
and glued to a plaque,
or printed in church-pamphlet colors...