Posted in Billy Collins, Life, Poetry, tagged Funny, Musings on January 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine.
Jacques Crickillon
You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass,
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.
However, you are not the wind [...]
Posted in Billy Collins, Music, Poetry, Spirituality on September 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s that remembrance of things and times gone by. That’s how I’ve been
feeling today: nostalgic.
It all began with the news that WAMU collapsed. It’s the oldest and longest
running Washington based institution. It’s not that big a deal except that it
was for so long and now it isn’t. Next, it was waking up to the news [...]
Posted in Billy Collins, Poetry, Spirituality, tagged Animals, Poignant on July 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I was sitting at an intersection today and two monarch
butterflies were doing some dance known only to them right
in front of me. I stood there enthralled by the beauty and
the wonder of it all. And very shortly a car came along
and only one butterfly remained. It danced for just a second
as if [...]
Posted in Billy Collins, Poetry, tagged Funny on March 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Remember the 1340’s? We were doing a dance called the Catapult.
You always wore brown, the color craze of the decade,
and I was draped in one of those capes that were popular,
the ones with unicorns and pomegranates in needlework.
Everyone would pause for beer and onions in the afternoon,
and at night we would play a game called [...]
Posted in Billy Collins, Poetry on February 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where [...]
Posted in Billy Collins, Poetry, tagged Animals, Dog, Funny on February 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I am the dog you put to sleep,
as you like to call the needle of oblivion,
come back to tell you this simple thing:
I never liked you–not one bit.
When I licked your face,
I thought of biting off your nose.
When I watched you toweling yourself dry,
I wanted to leap and unman you with a snap.
I resented the [...]
Posted in Billy Collins, Poetry on February 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is the beginning.
Almost anything can happen.
This is where you find
the creation of light, a fish wriggling onto land,
the first word of Paradise Lost on an empty page.
Think of an egg, the letter A,
a woman ironing on a bare stage as the heavy curtain rises.
This is the very beginning.
The first-person narrator introduces himself,
tells us about [...]
Posted in Billy Collins, Poetry, tagged Animals, Dog on February 8, 2008 | 2 Comments »
The way the dog trots out the front door
every morning
without a hat or an umbrella,
without any money
or the keys to her doghouse
never fails to fill the saucer of my heart
with milky admiration.
Who provides a finer example
of a life without encumbrance —
Thoreau in his curtainless hut
with a single plate, a single spoon?
Gandhi with his staff and [...]
