• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

William Landay

Official website of the author

  • Books
    • All That Is Mine
    • Defending Jacob
    • The Strangler
    • Mission Flats
  • News
    • Updates
    • Blog
  • Events
    • Appearances
    • Podcasts
    • Print
  • More
    • About
    • Contact
You are here: Home / Art / Poetry / Ted Kooser: “Daddy Longlegs”

Ted Kooser: “Daddy Longlegs”

November 9, 2009

Here, on fine long legs springy as steel,
a life rides, sealed in a small brown pill
that skims along over the basement floor
wrapped up in a simple obsession.
Eight legs reach out like the master ribs
of a web in which some thought is caught
dead center in its own small world,
a thought so far from the touch of things
that we can only guess at it. If mine,
it would be the secret dream
of walking alone across the floor of my life
with an easy grace, and with love enough
to live on at the center of myself.

— Ted Kooser

You can watch Kooser read this poem on video here.

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: poems, Ted Kooser

Footer

  • Amazon
  • Facebook
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram
  • Threads