Share this page :
Billy Collins (22 March 1941 - / New York City)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Poems by Billy Collins : 15 / 42
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
Submitted: Monday, January 13, 2003
Read poems about / on: poem, light, poetry
Poems by Billy Collins : 15 / 42
People who read Billy Collins also read
Top 500 Poems
-
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
-
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
-
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
-
If You Forget Me
Pablo Neruda
-
Dreams
Langston Hughes
-
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
-
If
Rudyard Kipling
-
A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
-
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
-
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
It’s Not Easy Being Poetry
Yesterday, I spotted a poem through the window.
darting across Main Street
it narrowly escaped the embrace
of two fervid lovers
and panted feverishly
as it ducked into my diner
where the waitress dreamily
poured a steaming cup
of coffee
right into its lap.
Great poem! I love it!
A poem is always there
waiting to be caught,
right out of thin air.
It can't be sought-
after,
and never, ever bought.
you have described poetry in a pleasurable and interesting way...beautiful
Nice poem; more than nice actually.
Literally, Billy Collins informs his readers to read poetry for enjoyment instead of dissecting it and trying to figure out a deeper meaning. Ironically, as a reader, I am still trying to dissect his poem. I realized that the word 'poem' can be substituted with the word 'snake' which completely makes sense. Collins uses phrases such as 'I dropp a mouse into the poem' and ' I want them to waterski across the surface of the poem' which alludes to the characteristics of a snake. Does anybody agree?
Robert Frost once made similar comments about dissecting a poem. I heard them years ago on an old scratchy record where he was reading his poems at a college. It was wonderful to see similar thoughts put down in verse and to see two great poets voicing the same sentiments.
His poem was touching, makes you feel different ways about the poem.
DEAR BILLY COLLINS
Where’s the one
where you crawl under skin
pierce the bad man’s heart
get dirty with the homeless
save the world from annihilation?
You waterski and wave,
dropp a mouse and feel for a switch,
press an ear and see the light.
Superman, yes!
Or is it Clark Kent?
I see you working at the Planet
reclined in your favorite chair
more powerful than a locomotive.
Feel you forming your next word,
bending steal with bare hands.
But, where’s the one that speaks
of pain, of fear, of vice and sin?
I want to be your neighbor on Lois Lane
lined with elm trees and picket fence.
Very truly yours, Bob Beers
(Sorry, the system insists on placing an extra p in drop.)
Just discovered Billy Collins today! He himself holds up an idea like a multifaceted crystal and as it rotates he translates the light into such evocative and accessable poetry. Wonderful.