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Monday, October 24, 2011

Billy Collins

I discovered Billy Collins several years ago when I read The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems. It caught my eye at Barnes & Noble because it had this captivating image of a black bear on the cover. (Yes, you can judge a book by its cover...this one was FABULOUS!)

I bought the book and read the whole thing in one afternoon. And then I read it again. And again. His poetry is contemporary, moving, funny and sublime. His powerful imagery gently leads you into the world he has created.


Introduction To Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.”
Billy Collins

2 comments:

  1. I can't say there's a lot of poetry in my life - well, this sort, anyway - but that was a cute poem, and it actually evoked images and feelings - and that's what it's supposed to do, right?

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  2. That's right, Craig. Every once in a while I get on a poetry writing/reading jag.

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