When Ted Kooser threw his slide rule into Lake LaVerne 40 years ago, he didn’t realize how much the act would affect his life.

Kooser, who began at Iowa State as an architecture major but graduated with a degree in distributed studies in 1962, was recently chosen to serve as the next poet laureate of the United States. He will spend eight months working at the Library of Congress delivering readings and advocating poetry.

“It is the highest honor a poet can earn in the U.S.,” said Sheryl St. Germain, associate professor of English and director of the ISU Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities.

The poet laureate is chosen by the Librarian of Congress, former appointees and the current poet laureate. Kooser’s appointment goes from October to May, and he will receive a $35,000 salary.

Kooser is expected to give an annual lecture and work on his own projects. He plans to work with English teachers and librarians to encourage more people to read and write poetry. This is important because poetry gives readers a new view of the world, Kooser said.

“With this appointment, I have more of a pulpit to talk about things I think are important and what is important to [the public],” Kooser said. “[Poetry] is a way of making our ordinary world remarkable and special.”

Kooser’s work is characterized by just that — making common scenes look fresh and new.

“With me, what is right under my nose is most exciting and interesting,” he said.

His poetry is inspired by his roots in Iowa, his residency in Garland, Neb., and by events in his life. His book, “Winter Morning Walk,” for example, was written while he was recovering from cancer treatments. The book compiles 100 poems he wrote on postcards to a good friend while he was recovering.

Unlike the postcard poems, however, most of Kooser’s work is developed over time. A 15-line poem may undergo 30 or 40 revisions before it is published, he said.

“Nothing is instant,” Kooser said. “It’s deliberate.”

He began writing while at Iowa State and yearned for improvement even then. He was involved in Writers’ Roundtable, a group of 16 writers — including now-Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa — who criticized one another’s work.

“It is the soul of a poet to be patient enough until you see something very clearly,” said Jack Winkler, a childhood friend of Kooser’s. “He’s the kind of guy who always stuck close to home.”

Kooser’s love of home and passion for the common results in poetry that is easily understood, St. Germain said.

“He writes in a voice accessible to all,” she said.

Kooser’s work also shows poetry should be less professionalized and that it is more than academic work to be studied, she said.

Now, his 10 collections of poems have helped him earn his way into the ranks of former U.S. poet laureates like Robert Frost and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Although he must leave Nebraska for Washington, Kooser is certain that he will not forget home.

After all, he still remembers the first poem he memorized, the John Drinkwater quotation that hangs over the north door of Gold Star Hall in the Memorial Union:

“For Thee they died; Master and Maker, God of Right; The Soldier dead are at Thy gate; Who kept the spears of honor bright; And Freedom’s house inviolate.”