{"id":5269,"date":"2024-03-08T13:20:27","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T19:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/creamcityreview\/?p=5269"},"modified":"2026-01-08T16:10:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:10:43","slug":"friday-flashback-ted-kooser-fireflies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/creamcityreview\/friday-flashback-ted-kooser-fireflies\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Flashback: Ted Kooser – Fireflies"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the lead-up to our 50th Anniversary next year, <\/em>Cream City Review <\/strong>is revisiting work in our Archives. Below is one from Ted Kooser, Pulitizer Prize winner, former U.S. Poet Laureate, and one of the great living writers of contemporary poetry. This poem would go on to appear in his excellent collection <\/em>Weather Central (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994). Ted’s website can be found here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fireflies<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The cricket\u2019s pocket knife is bent
\nfrom prying up the lid of a can
\nof new moons. It skips on the grindstone,
\nchattering, showering sparks
\nthat float away over the darkened yard.<\/p>\n

This is the Fourth of July
\nfor the weary ants, who have no union,
\nwho come home black with coal dust.
\nDeep in the grass you can hear them
\nunfolding their canvas chairs.<\/p>\n

There is a pier that arches out
\ninto the evening, its pilings of shadow,
\nits planking of breeze, and on it
\na woman stands snapping the shade
\nof a lantern, signaling someone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

– from Cream City Review<\/em> 16.1 (Spring 1992).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the lead-up to our 50th Anniversary next year, Cream City Review is revisiting work in our Archives. Below is one from Ted Kooser, Pulitizer Prize winner, former U.S. Poet Laureate, and one of the great living writers of contemporary poetry. 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