So This is Nebraska

"Clouds” by Denise Levertov (1966)

Just as the pickup truck in Kooser’s poem “So This Is Nebraska” reads the clouds, the speaker in Levertov’s poem devotes their attention to the clouds. Aside from the appearance of clouds, both poems present quaint yet accessible images. Kooser’s depictions of Nebraska carefully straddle the line between puzzling and clear, and Levertov’s rendering of the clouds is playfully effusive. Levertov’s poem also uses personification, as the speaker watches the clouds “pursuing / the fallen sun” as if the clouds were human soldiers chasing a retreating enemy.

“Selecting a Reader” by Ted Kooser (1980)

“Selecting a Reader” is the first poem in Sure Signs, and it shares many of the themes, motifs, and ideas of “So This Is Nebraska.” The poem maintains Kooser’s emphasis on struggling, downtrodden people and things. In “Selecting a Reader,” the speaker announces that their ideal reader is a woman who does not think she can afford to clean her disheveled raincoat. However, after picking up a book of pricey poems, the speaker concludes that they can and will clean their coat. As in “So This Is Nebraska,” the speaker in “Selecting a Reader” tries to connect themselves to people and things that upend expectations or deviate from certain societal norms and socioeconomic classes.