About “Notice Six Things”

I learned about this idea in something that Ted Kooser wrote. He was the poet laureate of the United States from 2004 to 2006, and he comes from the small town of Garland, Nebraska. He was an insurance agent all his working life — he’s now retired — but wrote, and writes, steadily in a little shack on his acreage. He was quoting the poet Linda Gregg about something she asks her students to do: every day, notice six things.Not having a big idea to write about can stop me in my tracks. So it’s been interesting to notice that when you collect six little things, sometimes you will find something bigger hidden among them….