2005 Poet Laureate Ted Kooser

Last night, October 26, 2006 Ted Kooser (pictured above) the 2005 Poet Laureate of the United States gave a reading and answered audience questions at the Wyatt Pavilion on the UC Davis campus. Kooser the 13th Poet Laureate hails from Nebraska where he was for over 30 years an insurance agent and is currently a professor of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Most of his poems are easily accessible to the general public and he read poems that ranged from his early, middle and late career. Many of his poems were written from his personal experiences and most are observational in nature. He was actually pretty funny, telling stories to set up each poem and explaining about the inspiration for his poetry. His most memorable poem was inspired by a certain kind of moth that lives off of tears which included the line: "rubbing the dust from his wings from your eyes."

spoken word poet Terry Moore

Tonight, we saw spoken word poet Terry Moore (pictured on the left) at the Bistro 33 in Davis. He was every bit as good as his resume claims (click here to see it). He did 4 poems and an encore and it was easy to understand why he is definitely one of Sacramento's finest. His poems are uplifting and positive. He has range as well, he performed poems for the ladies and the men in the audience with both styles going over well. His last poem, a "self esteem poem for the women" was about married women or women with children who do not necessarily feel pretty or beautiful anymore. Maybe his best line of the night came from that poem (and reading this quote certainly does not do it justice): "Even if you stretch out over here, know that your heart is still tight."

For more, Check out his website at: http://www.terrymoore.info/

An Introduction

What's up...I am the creator/editor of an e-zine called The Scrambler. We are interested in exposing more people to literature and the arts. If you haven't yet, check out the website and submit something if you write, draw, paint, can snap a picture, or even if you think about doing any of those, do it and send us the results. We publish online, and we publish established as well as new writers/artists. I hope you enjoy these posts, of which there will hopefully be at least a new one each week.