A Portrait of the Reader with a Bowl of Cereal by Billy Collins
A Portrait of the Reader with a Bowl of Cereal
Billy CollinsEvery morning I sit across from you
at the same small table,
the sun all over the breakfast things—
curve of a blue-and-white pitcher,
a dish of berries—
me in a sweatshirt or robe,
you invisible.Most days, we are suspended
over a deep pool of silence.
I stare straight through you
or look out the window at the garden,
the powerful sky,
a cloud passing behind a tree.There is no need to pass the toast,
the pot of jam,
or pour you a cup of tea,
and I can hide behind the paper,
rotate in its drum of calamitous news.But some days I may notice
a little door swinging open
in the morning air,
and maybe the tea leaves
of some dream will be stuck
to the china slope of the hour—then I will lean forward,
elbows on the table,
with something to tell you,
and you will look up, as always,
your spoon dripping milk, ready to listen.
KEEP READING
SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Picnic, Lightning by Billy Collins, published by University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998. (Available direct from University of Pittsburgh Press • Also on: Amazon • Bookshop)
DESCRIPTION
“Winner of the 1999 Paterson Poetry Prize
Over the past decade, Billy Collins has emerged as the most beloved American poet since Robert Frost, garnering critical acclaim and broad popular appeal. Annie Proulx admits, “I have never before felt possessive about a poet, but I am fiercely glad that Billy Collins is ours.” John Updike proclaims his poems “consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides.”
This special, limited edition celebrates Billy Collins’s years as U.S. Poet Laureate. Picnic, Lightning—one of the books that helped establish and secure his reputation and popularity during the 1990s—combines humor and seriousness, wit and sublimity. His poems touch on a wide range of subjects, from jazz to death, from weather to sex, but share common ground where the mind and heart can meet. Whether reading him for the first time or the fiftieth, this collector’s edition is a must-have for anyone interested in the poet the New York Times calls simply “the real thing.”” (Source)
ABOUT BILLY COLLINS
Dubbed “the most popular poet in America” by Bruce Weber in the New York Times, Billy Collins is famous for conversational, witty poems that welcome readers with humor but often slip into quirky, tender, or profound observation on the everyday, reading and writing, and poetry itself. Collins was born in 1941 in New York City. He earned a BA from the College of the Holy Cross, and both an MA and PhD from the University of California-Riverside. In 1975 he cofounded… (more)
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ENDNOTES
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