In the following excerpt, McDougall discusses the recurring symbolism of hands among the poems in Kooser's Delights & Shadows.

As I read Ted Kooser's new volume of poetry, Delights & Shadows, I was struck by how many poems he has written about hands, and I began turning down pages. It was my hand fluttering over the hands of his characters—or rather—my hand fluttering over the alphabet he has wrought with his hands to represent people, many of whom are portrayed through the action of their hands, like those Nebraska people I myself knew and loved. This essay of appreciation for a fellow Nebraska poet is about how Kooser, writing about people in that part of the country, manages to convey essential facts about the human condition. He catches the people he sees around him in practical poses and with a physical reality that contrasts to the cerebral...