Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins
Because things are beginning again, and I am hoping more people discover poetry this year.
Introduction to Poetry
Billy CollinsI ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slideor 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.
—
From Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins, published by Random House, 2002. (•)
sh.
— But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it. —
brilliant stanza. here’s to a year where Readers do not beat confessions out of anything – and allow infinite spaces, between people and things – the only way to ever understand anything, maybe..
Nikoel
I have to thank you. This website has proved to be a great outlet for me and I discovered it not too long ago. Thank you for giving me a place where poetry runs free and I don’t have to discuss it with someone only to have to give in to what they say.
Poet Kaylynté
This is my favorite poem by Billy Collins. 🙂