Tattoo

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2003

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context

In 1967, editor Lucien Stryk put together an anthology devoted to Midwestern poets called Heartland: Poems of the Midwest, which was followed by Heartland II in 1975. These two collections were used to define the poets central to the Midwestern region, often called the heartland of the United States. New literary magazines, often under the leadership of Midwestern poets, flourished in the area, and their concentration was often on other Midwestern writers. This movement was labeled the “Midwest Poetry Renaissance.” Heartland poets developed a distinct style separate from the poets on either coast. Poets like Kooser—along with Robert Bly, Gwendolyn Brooks, Susan Firer, Jim Harrison, Louis Jenkins, Greg Kuzma, Lisel Mueller, Mary Oliver, Karl Shapiro, William Stafford, and James Wright—were often inspired by the precise style of William Carlos Williams. They became known for their direct poetic diction, short construction, and conversational tone. Their ability to capture the natural world in the Midwestern states was lauded for its sharpness and metaphoric authority. Many discussed the loss of a way of rural life, the hardship and isolation in small towns across the Great Plains, and how beauty could be a defense against brutality.

Kooser, in particular, provides no personal mythologies, just a sharp eye on everyday occurrences. The mundane becomes extraordinary by way of his precision and focus. Rather than write in a way to obscure intent, Kooser instead offers concrete detail that lets the reader come to their own conclusion. The straight-forwardness has made some critics call Kooser dull, but as poet Dana Gioia says in Can Poetry Matter?, “He has achieved the most difficult kind of originality. He has translated the common idiom and experience into fresh and distinctive poetry” (Gioia, Dana. Can Poetry Matter? Graywolf Press, 1992. p. 94). Gioia suggests that “Kooser is unsurpassed in articulating the subtle and complex sensibility of the common American” (Gioia, 112). Kooser’s poems often focus specifically on Midwestern topics, people, landscapes, and items.

Geographical Context

Kooser’s concrete details often focus on an unmistakable Midwestern landscape. He consistently sets his short poems on farms, in orchards, or fields, on small town sidewalks, and at yard sales. Positioning themselves at a distance, his speakers often eye abandoned factories, churches, and schoolhouses, long to help the lonely and afraid. They note the coldness of snow and the humidity of summer nights, listen to the sounds of crickets and cicadas and the call of flickers and sparrows, mention the sturdy bodies of cows and horses. Kooser’s speakers go in and out of antique stores and Goodwill shops, observing objects that once were useful but now collect dust.

While these poems may seem merely observational, they also speak to the pain of those in the Great Plains, particularly as they face economic hardships and declining populations. Once the proverbial breadbasket of a nation, since the 1980s, Midwest farming communities have been challenged by corporate buyouts and imported goods. Thriving towns have fallen to disrepair or abandonment, creating an emptiness that many writers, including Kooser, find haunts both the farming field and the storefront. The subjects in Kooser’s poems often wander this sometimes eerie, sometimes beautiful landscape alone, feeling their loss, the decline of their way of life. In Kooser’s poems, people continually look through items, often used, looking for a lost or missing piece of themselves and/or their community. Emily Grosholz, in writing about Kooser’s poetry in The Hudson Review (see Further Resources for a link), acknowledges the power of his ability to use the Midwestern landscape as a powerful agent of transformation. Kooser has an ability to both acknowledge what has fallen apart in the American Midwest and to offer solace in what remains.