By Ted Kooser

S. H. 1940-2002

We were both young, in our late twenties,
vain and full of ourselves and The Arts,
unimportant to anyone out in the world

who might matter, but we mattered to us,
and we mixed up a bowl of plaster of Paris 
and stirred it smooth with a tablespoon, 

such a white white, as if it were spooned 
from the moon. With cotton you plugged up
your nostrils and smeared Vaseline over 

your face, then fitted a plastic drinking straw 
into your lips so you’d be able to breathe,
and lay face up on the rug in my apartment 

with newspapers spread under your head, 
and closed your eyes while I ladled spoon
after spoon over your face, your warm breath  

whistling in and out of that straw. Who
you were then, old friend, was right there, 
under that thick, slowly hardening crust,

your charm, your dream to go to New York
and be famous, and I remember how one hand 
spidered out over the carpet, and dabbled

                                                      (stanza break)

in the tassels of dusty fringe at the edge 
while I sat beside you, and the plaster set up.,
and I put my hand above the straw’s end

to feel your breath on my palm though you
couldn’t have known. After your death mask 
had hardened, I very carefully lifted it off

and you sat up, relieved, and took it from me,
a heavy, clumsy bowl, your face inside out,
you peering into the dreamer you were.

You then took it away with you, planning to
make a cast of that face. Thirty years later,
having been famous for a while and then 

not, you died of cancer, poor in New York. 
Surely somewhere is our chalky white mold 
of your face, your eyes closed as if sleeping, 

lips pursed around a black pencil-sized hole, 
as if you were taking the last sips of our lives 
as we knew them when we were young.  

The Importance of Arts, Culture & The Creative Process

The arts and humanities are not only important to me, but my name is on the Medical Humanities program at the University of Nebraska in Omaha.

What was the inspiration for your creative work? 

I wanted to write an elegy for my late friend

Tell us something about the natural world that you love and don’t wish to lose. What are your thoughts on the kind of world we are leaving for the next generation?

I love our national parks, and pray that they aren't abused.

Photo credit: Stancey Hancock

Ted Kooser is a poet and essayist, a Presidential Professor of English at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He served as the U. S. Poet Laureate from 2004-2006, and his book Delights & Shadows won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. His writing is known for its clarity, precision and accessibility. He worked for many years in the life insurance business, retiring in 1999 as a vice president. He and his wife, Kathleen Rutledge, the retired editor of The Lincoln Journal Star, live on an acreage near the village of Garland, Nebraska. He has a son, Jeff, and two granddaughters, Margaret and Penelope.