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Splitting an Order Hardcover – October 21, 2014

by Ted Kooser (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 103 ratings
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One of the "Big Indie Books of Fall 2014"—Publishers Weekly

Paterson Poetry Prize, 2015

"Ted Kooser must be the most accessible and enjoyable major poet in America. His lines are so clear and simple."—Michael Dirda,The Washington Post

“Readers [of Splitting an Order] will find ‘characters’ both strange and wonderful, animal or human. There is a sense that time is passing quickly and that everything worthy must be captured and savored, from an old couple lovingly sharing a sandwich to another sowing seed potatoes to a tribute to an old dog who waits as age and winter approach… Master of the single-metaphor poem, Kooser offers images that evolve, fluid and unforced.”—Library Journal, starred review

"Wisdom, compassion, and dignity continue to mark the poetry of Ted Kooser...Splitting an Order [is] a quiet collection that honors small victories and gives reasons to be hopeful."—Elizabeth Lund, The Christian Science Monitor

"Kooser's ability to discover the smallest detail and render it remarkable is a rare gift."—Bloomsbury Review

Pulitzer Prize winner and best selling poet Ted Kooser calls attention to the intimacies of life through commonplace objects and occurrences: an elderly couple sharing a sandwich is a study in transcendent love, while a tattered packet of spinach seeds calls forth innate human potential. This long-awaited collection from the former U.S. Poet Laureate—ten years in the making—is rich with quiet and profound magnificence.

From "Splitting an Order":

I like to watch an old man cutting a sandwich in half
… and then to see him lift half
onto the extra plate that he asked the server to bring,
and then to wait, offering the plate to his wife
while she slowly unrolls her napkin and places her spoon,
her knife and her fork in their proper places,
then smoothes the starched white napkin over her knees
and meets his eyes and holds out both old hands to him.

Ted Kooser is the author of numerous books of poetry and prose, including Delights and Shadows (Copper Canyon Press), which won the Pulitzer Prize. A former US Poet Laureate, Kooser serves as editor for "American Life in Poetry," a nationally syndicated weekly newspaper column.

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  1. Print length
    96 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Copper Canyon Press
  4. Publication date
    October 21, 2014
  5. Dimensions
    5.6 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9781556594694
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1556594694
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1556594690
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Copper Canyon Press; First Edition (October 21, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 96 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781556594694
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1556594694
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 103 ratings

About the author

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Ted Kooser

Ted Kooser

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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

4.7 out of 5 stars
103 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the poetry great, wonderful, and easy to read. They describe the book as beautiful, a jewel to be cherished, and full of crystal-clear images that capture the profound beauty of life. Readers also appreciate the author's distinctive and delightful ability to paint word pictures that capture places.

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Poetry qualityEvocationVisual quality
16 customers mention "Poetry quality"16 positive0 negative

Customers find the poetry great, wonderful, and accessible. They say the book content is pure Kooser and a true delight. Readers also appreciate the descriptive, sensitive writing and complex words.

"This is a beautiful book. Kooser is a good and careful poet, a master rather than a genius. He has a keen eye, a tin ear and a compassionate soul...." Read more

"Some of these poems left me a little sad. Mr. Kooser 's writing is so descriptive, I felt I was there...." Read more

"Ted Kooser is my favorite poet. His poems are simple, polished, and somehow profound. They are usually about every day things...." Read more

"Another remarkable book of poetry. One always wonders how Ted Kooser keeps the steady beauty, imagery, ah-hah!..." Read more

9 customers mention "Evocation"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the poems in the book very evocative and easy to read. They describe the content as pure Kooser, a true delight, and a jewel to be cherished. Readers also mention that reading the book is a delight.

"This is a beautiful book. Kooser is a good and careful poet, a master rather than a genius. He has a keen eye, a tin ear and a compassionate soul...." Read more

"...His poems are simple, polished, and somehow profound. They are usually about every day things. I wish they would put his work into an audible book." Read more

"Kooser's latest poetry volume is very gratifying...." Read more

"...; is another volume worthy of Kooser's extraordinary legacy -- exquisite and often deeply moving...." Read more

3 customers mention "Visual quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the poetry in the book full of crystal-clear images. They say the author captures the profound beauty of life and has a delightful ability to paint word pictures that capture places.

"...alive today who has developed such a distinctive and delightful ability to paint word pictures that so capture a place...." Read more

"Ted Kooser, former U.S. poet laureate, still captures the profound beauty of life...." Read more

"Wonderful poetry, full of crystal-clear images. Very evocative. It made me want to go to the places he describes." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Alejandro Gaviria
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is a beautiful book. Kooser is a good and careful poet, a master rather than a genius. He has a keen eye, a tin ear and a compassionate soul. He is capable, time and time again, of opening our eyes to the sacredness (i.e., the existentialist relevance) of ordinary objects and events: an old man in a cafeteria splitting a sandwich for his wife with trembling hands, a father and his son in neckties walking hand in hand in a nondescript parking lot, a collection of forgotten objects in a estate sale, waiting, as it were, for a second chance in a different place, two lovers meeting after many years and leaving their old grievances unsaid, a zinc lid that did its job and is dying as things do, slowly, a fish tank rotting inside under the indifferent sight of a young couple in a bad marriage,...

I read this book in a plane, drying my eyes shyly from time to time. "I want to be better at carrying sorrow. If my face is a mask, formed over the shadows that fill me, may I smile on the world like the moon," writes Kooser in a short poem of this beautiful collection. This book teaches us just that: to better carry our sorrows and memories, to understand that what it seems ordinary a few years back it was not so ordinary after all.
8 people found this helpful
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John P. Jones III
5.0 out of 5 stars Slow food and slow reading…
Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2022
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The French are famous for their “slow food” movement, an obvious retort to the proliferation of fast-food restaurants in France. Rather late in life I’ve decided to commit to more “slow reading,” which may be a suitable characterization for the reading of poetry. It was the gentle nudging of a former Amazon reviewer, and in particular, his review of this selection of Ted Kooser’s poems, that finally pushed me to answer that perennial question: “If not now, when?” He used a key word in his review: “accessible.” Another way of saying no fancy footwork.

Kooser lives in the heartland, or, if your perspective is more coastal, the flyover zone: Nebraska. I am finding the heartland increasingly attractive, which certainly includes the people that live there. Kooser’s poems also reflect his time in life: the aging process. And that too resonates.

Take, for example, the keen eye that observed, and the precise wording that recorded the poem from which the title is derived: “Splitting an Order.” The mundane. The aging process. You don’t need as much food. Thus, one splits an order with one’s partner. And it is just one sandwich, for which there is the necessity of: “…keeping his shaky hands steady by placing his forearms firm on the edge of the table…” The necessity to find that modifier “firm.”

“Estate Sale” made me nervous. A catalog of the accumulated detritus of life. Who remembers watches that wound up? Who remembers 25-amp fuses? Who can analyze a door hinge, and know what door that it once was used to support? What detritus lurks in my own antic? And if we throw in a review of the antic of the mind…?

Or in the poem “Lantern,” consider: "…the way we all, one day, move on, leaving a little sharp whiff of ourselves in the dirty bedding.” Or, Wikipedia informs me that Garrison, Nebraska is a collection of homes whose inhabitants total 50. So, in the eponymous poem, Kooser notes that “…this tiny village is fading to gray, mildewed and dusty, shelved at the back of the busy library of American progress.” Take that, you coastal elites!

I also particularly liked “A Morning in Early Spring,” that concludes with “This is my life, none other like this.” Also, “A Person of Limited Palette” concludes with “…thirty miles south of the broad Platte River, under the flyway of dreams.”

Kooser finishes this selection of 51 poems with a short story entitled “Small Rooms in Time.” Imagine, it is the family home, familiar and safe, with emotional attachments to those unique storehouses of memories. But one moves on, but not to far. You learn that your family home has been desecrated by a murder… kids murdering a kid, none old enough to drink legally, all over a pound of cocaine that was not there.

Like slow food, slow reading can be delicious, and I am glad I finally commenced. 5-stars.
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Eve Eighmy
5.0 out of 5 stars Such wonderful writing
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2019
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Some of these poems left me a little sad. Mr. Kooser 's writing is so descriptive, I felt I was there.
I sat and read one poem after the other and some more than once. Of course, then I ordered two more of his books.
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Author Abbie Johnson Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars Poet Depicts Life in a Straight-forward Manner
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2018
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I like Ted Kooser’s poetry because it tells a story in a manner that is straightforward and not abstract. I was fortunate several years ago to attend a writers’ conference at which he was the keynote speaker. One point he made was that a poem’s title can be used to set the scene.
This is exactly what he does with his own poems. The title tells the reader either the location of the story in the poem or what action takes place. The poem is thus written around the title.
Take, for example, “At Arby’s, at Noon.” He starts by describing a typical lunch hour in a fast food restaurant. Then, he paints a picture of a woman who is blind kissing a man with a disfigured face while life goes on around them.
For this reason, I highly recommend Ted Kooser’s work. Even if you don’t like poetry, I think you’ll appreciate the way he weaves words into stories about ordinary and not-so-ordinary events.
2 people found this helpful
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Judy
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2014
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Mr Kooser is always a charmer. Shipping service was great.
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Kerry L Daniel
5.0 out of 5 stars and after savoring Splitting an Order it's easy to see why
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2014
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Ted Kooser is an American icon, and after savoring Splitting an Order it's easy to see why. There is no other American poet alive today who has developed such a distinctive and delightful ability to paint word pictures that so capture a place. He is a master of place and is able to set the reader right down in the dusty fields of his native Nebraska in such a way they can taste the grit on their lips. My father is from Nebraska and has told some wonderful tales of his own boyhood in the same place Kooser lives. They seem like twin sons of different mothers. My Dad was no poet, though. So it was Ted's poems that helped me know my father's heart and roots like no one else. I am grateful for this and every book he's written. If you think you don't like poetry, you haven't read Ted Kooser. Be brave and try this one. You just may fall in love with the genre.
28 people found this helpful
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3bells
5.0 out of 5 stars Simple Yet Profound
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2018
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Ted Kooser is my favorite poet. His poems are simple, polished, and somehow profound. They are usually about every day things. I wish they would put his work into an audible book.
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Celia Parrott
5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth owning and reading
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015
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Another remarkable book of poetry. One always wonders how Ted Kooser keeps the steady beauty, imagery, ah-hah! and satisfaction in poem after poem.
This one speaks particularly to aging, the givens we elderly deal with day by day, the depth pure experience and routine can give to a relationship or a simple task - all carried on metaphor. And the conundrum of youthful inside somewhat betrayed by the aging body and its fralties.
2 people found this helpful
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