The poem
First, I would have her be beautiful, and walking carefully up on my poetry at the loneliest moment of an afternoon, her hair still damp at the neck from washing it. She should be wearing a raincoat, an old one, dirty from not having money enough for the cleaners. She will take out her glasses, and there in the bookstore, she will thumb over my poems, then put the book back up on its shelf. She will say to herself, "For that kind of money, I can get my raincoat cleaned." And she will.
It was interesting for me to note that Ted Kooser's "ideal" reader is one who chooses to not even purchase his poetry, but rather spend her money on more practical things.
I'm having a hard time deciding for myself if Kooser is speaking in metaphor or symbolism, or if he is being literal in his remarks that his perfect reader wouldn't even bother to read his work.
Does anyone have any additional comments on this?
Ted Kooser always expressed simplicity in his work, so I'm supposing that it's not too metaphoric in what he's trying to say. Maybe he really is saying that a person with not enough money to even wash their raincoat should focus on that neccessity over purchasing his poem. It could be more but I don't see anything that lends itself into metaphor.
Who would want a woman like that reading their poems? lol. Sounds like a bimbo - that they would think of cleaning their raincoat over poems, but then I realize that we are talking about Ted Kooser's poems here.