Lincoln Public Schools

Lincoln Public Schools celebrated the ground breaking of its newest Elementary School Friday, April 25. The new school is being built at the corner of North 14th Street and Alvo Road.

The  windy, chilly conditions didn't dampen the spirits of those in attendance, including the namesake, Ted Kooser.

Kooser, who celebrated his 69th birthday on the same day, is one of Nebraska's most highly regarded poets.

A Pulitzer Prize winner, Kooser served as the United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-06.

Kooser said he was moved by the honor of having a school named in his honor.

"Of all the honors I've received, this is the one that will mean the most to me over a long period of time," he said.

LPS Superintendent Dr. Susan Gourley reflected on the impact of having a school named after Lincoln's most successful writer.

"How many children will be inspired to write their own poems about Nebraska and their own lives because they're attending a school that's named after such a great poet?"

So it seemed only appropriate that the ceremony took place after Kooser read his poem "Swinging from parents."

The child walks between her father and mother,
holding their hands. She makes the shape of the y
at the end of infancy, and lifts her feet
the way the y pulls up its feet, and swings
like the v in love, between an o and e
who are strong and steady and as far as she knows
will be there to swing from forever. Sometimes
her father, using his free hand, points to something
and says its name, the way the arm of the r
points into the future at the end of father.
Or the r at the end of forever. It's that forever
the child puts her trust in, lifting her knees,
swinging her feet out over the world.

Ted Kooser, First published in Willow Review