Pamela Steed Hill

Pamela Steed Hill has had poems published in over 90 journals and magazines and is the author of In Praise of Motels, her first full-length collection, published in 1999. She is an associate editor for University Communications at TheOhio State University. In the following essay, Hill notes how the speaker "talks to " the stars to demonstrate his love and affection for his son, as well as to reveal the reason for the sadness that underlies an otherwise tender moment.

Born in Ames, Iowa, in 1939, Ted Kooser is one of America's and, in particular, one of the Midwest's most highly regarded poets, especially for the states of Nebraska and Iowa. What has primarily led to his popularity is his consistent ability to turn everyday language and everyday events into poetry. One doesn't need to have lived a fairly quiet, unremarkable life on a small midwestern farm to...