Billy Collins is Back at It

Mr. Collins, will you be my uncle?

Sorry, but I had to get that out of the way.

The former US Poet Laureate has a new book out, entitled Ballistics. In a great New York Times review, Janet Maslin says,

The title poem in this supple collection, a book in which Mr. Collins reiterates many of his usual themes with a healthy dose of his usual panache, performs one of his best-enjoyed feats: skewering poetry. Other people’s poems are favorite targets, although the pedantry of the poetry-related workshop, classroom, students’ notes and interpretation also excite his most entertaining ire.

Which reminds me of an all-time favorite Collins poem, one I recently referred to in the poetry workshop I'm currently teaching:

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.

Words to live by, I suppose, though it kind of undercuts the whole workshop idea. (Please don't tell anyone in my class.)

So, my birthday is coming up soon. Anyone want to beat me with a hose? I mean, get me the new Collins book?

--MJH