Ted Kooser's A Spiral Notebook - Book Report/Review Example

"much like a dream, trancelike and timeless" (Kooser, 2005, 1) even as the reader plunges into the depth of the poem to explore its bottom. Like in afore mentioned poem, the simple topic of a notebook is taken by him, and has been converted by him into a piece of amazement. At the outset what strikes one immediately is the commonplace subject of the notebook itself. Almost everyday, hundreds of men, women and children buy notebooks, without giving it a second thought, or a second look. In Kooser lies the difference that he observes every little thing closely; nothing escapes his attention, however minute it may be.

Like for example, he observes that the cover of the book is blue like the 'sea', and thus the spiral binding appears like a 'porpoise' to him - "The bright wire rolls like a porpoise/ in and out of the calm blue sea/ Alternately, he likens it to a sleeper who goes into and out of his dreaming state when he pens his ideas in a notebook, "like a sleeper/ twisting in and out of his dreams, / for it could hold a record of dreams/ if you wanted to buy it for that" (Source lines 3-5). Kooser, in simple, very understandable yet very relevant words, intertwines reality with imagination.

From metaphoric imagination in the first few lines, he nudges the attention of the reader, gently, to reality by pertinently point to the fact that it is marked "5 SUBJECT NOTEBOOK" (Source line 11) on it, and that it has brown colored cardboard separations "set apart by brown cardboard dividers" (Source line 15). Instead of standing apart as individual notebooks and claiming individual attention for themselves, they seem to unite into one and claim your interest, Kooser states. Towards the end of the poem, he links indelibly to every avid reader with his observation that, one loves to pass one's fingers over the lines of the notebook (probably because it contains one's own writings).

He deftly puts it as, "like this notebook/ you weigh in your hands, / passing your fingers over its surfaces / as if it were some kind of wonder." (Source lines 18-21) The lack of punctuations contributes to the unobtrusive mood of working magic in the minds of men. He works this magic by pointing to small but significant details like a blue cover and the words of '5 subject notebook' printed on it, ultimately turning his attention to the response of the human beings handling the notebook, and their eagerness to flip through the pages.

It is the above observations though small, that strikes the chord with the readers of his poem when they realize this to be correct and the fact that they have hitherto hardly observed the same! Thus these tiny observations in the hands of Ted Kooser, have turned the mundane subject of a notebook, into something of a small wonder, in his