Sometimes it”s easy to overlook something important because we take it for granted. For months now, I”ve done just that with Ted Kooser”s project, American Life in Poetry. Conceived while he was the Poet Laureate of the United States (2004-2006), American Life in Poetry is a weekly column about poetry that is made available free of charge to newspapers, magazines, websites and other publications. The project, co-sponsored by The Poetry Foundation, Library of Congress and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, seeks to bring poetry back to the daily newspaper.

Says Kooser in the introduction to the project, “”As Poet Laureate I want to show the people who read newspapers that poetry can be for them, can give them a chuckle or an insight.” He recalls a time when poetry was often published in newspapers, and wants to bring it back. “Readers enjoyed it. They would clip verses, stick them in their diaries, enclose them in letters. They even took time to memorize some of the poems they discovered.”

“Poetry has remained a perennial expression of our emotional, spiritual and intellectual lives, as witnessed by the tens of thousands of poems written about the tragedy of September 11 that circulated on the Internet. Now I”m hoping to convince editors that there could be a small place in their papers for poetry, that it could add a spot of value in the eyes of readers. Best of all, it won”t cost a penny.”

Each week, American Life in Poetry features a poem by a contemporary American poet, with a short introduction by Kooser. Kooser goes out of his way, he says, to choose poems that are short and enjoyable, easy to read and remember – all terms that describe the poet”s own work. You can find this week”s column at the American Life in Poetry website, along with full archives of the project.