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Writer's pictureEmilia von dem Hagen

After Years by Ted Kooser

The beauty of Ted Kooser’s After Years comes from how imaginatively he depicts the feeling that we’ve all felt in one way or another: when your heart abruptly drops and the entire world seems to stop for a second.

He starts at the scene (“Today, from a distance, I saw you”) and then zooms frantically around the universe, from the sea to the Cumberlands to the other side of the galaxy, capturing the enormity of the explosion in his heart before bringing us back to the individual person, standing frozen there in the moment (“as he stood on the great open dome / of my heart with no one to tell").


With so few words, Kooser perfectly captures the experience of overflowing with emotion while the world around you continues unnoticing. (A very Elio-crying-in-front-of-the-fireplace sort of reflection.)

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After Years by Ted Kooser

Today, from a distance, I saw you

walking away, and without a sound

the glittering face of a glacier

slid into the sea. An ancient oak

fell in the Cumberlands, holding only

a handful of leaves, and an old woman

scattering corn to her chickens looked up

for an instant. At the other side

of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times

the size of our own sun exploded

and vanished, leaving a small green spot

on the astronomer's retina

as he stood on the great open dome

of my heart with no one to tell.


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