Ted Kooser
To Windward
It was a plain, nearly colorless day,
misty grays and pale blues, inseparable
at the horizon, the sea coming back
wave after wave with no news to speak of.
My intention to walk a few miles
was just a few feet out in front of me,
stubborn, determined, while I followed
more idly, looking down at my feet
padding over the packed sand, shells
and, here and there, agates of sea glass,
when I found myself rounding a corner
into a strong, steady breeze that was
warm, slightly damp, like a muzzle
nosing about over all of my pockets
as if wondering if I’d brought it
a carrot or apple, and I suddenly felt
more alive than I’d been when I started,
and though my legs wanted to go,
I stopped and stood long with my face
in the wild mane of that pony of wind.
Ted Kooser is a former US Poet Laureate and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. He lives in rural Nebraska, and his most recent collection of poems is A Man With a Rake, a chapbook from Pulley Press.