I’ve just closed Picnic, Lightning, a book of poems by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. This is poetry for anyone who thinks poetry is scary, or worse, boring. Collins believes that poetry should be for the people, not just other poets, and certainly not for critics. His work is true to this belief. His poems are accessible yet beautiful, and they have something big to say. I won’t tell you that some of them make me cry, because to tell you that I cry at poetry would be like saying the rain is wet.
Here are a few of my favorite poems of his.
Marginalia
Afternoon with Irish Cows
Passengers
Aristotle
Taking off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes
I Go Back to the House for a Book
Bonsai
The Best Cigarette
Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House
If we were all at my house, I would stand and read one or two of these aloud, but I don’t believe I can reprint them here for you. I hope you can find them easily. Let me know what you like.
One reader's thoughts as she steps from book to book.
Books I've Finished
- "A Christmas Memory"
- by Truman Capote 12/8/12
- "Child's Christmas in Wales"
- by Dylan Thomas 12/7/12
- "One Christmas"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- "The Thanksgiving Visitor"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- Inside Mrs. B's Classroom
- by Leslie Baldacci 11/28/12
- The Bee Eater
- by Richard Whitmire 11/15/12
- There Are No Shortcuts
- by Rafe Esquith 10/28/12
- I'd Like to Apologize to
- Every Teacher I Ever Had
- by Tony Danza 10/21/12
- Corked
- by Kathryn Borel 10/15/12
- Year of Learning Dangerously
- by Quinn Cummings 9/30/12
- A Hologram for the King
- by Dave Eggers 8/23/12
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- by Harper Lee 7/18/12
About Me
- Christine
- I often have a few books with bookmarks in them at once. I enjoy classics more than contemporary works of fiction, often read historical fiction, and love to get glimpses into other people's lives by reading memoirs and biographies.
6 comments:
I liked the Emily Dickenson poem, as it was a tidy visual package that didn't offer to many distractions. And the ciggarette poem - there is just nothing like a good smoke. I read quite a few, and enjoyed them all. Here are quite a few of his works...
http://www.poemhunter.com/billy-collins/poems/
All poems of the poet: Billy Collins - works
sorry. typo. to...too
cigarette - cigarette
Thanks, Sophia. Typos our aloud!
Did you read Marginalia? I love it, esp. the stanza, "And if you have managed to graduate from college/ without ever having written "Man vs. Nature"/ in a margin, perhaps now/
is the time to take one step forward."
hi ch! i haven't read this collection in a year or so but i agree about the descriptions of his work! absolutely clear and unique and wonderfully approachable. you can certainly post any of them here w/ the proper credit, just list his name after and the collection.
Marginalia - whoa. Read it. Thank you .
OK, admit it, it was YOU with the egg salad.
The Modest Proposal line...LOL.
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