Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins

Billy Collins --One time U.S. Poet Laureate

I can't begin to tell you how much I love Billy Collins. His poetry is fresh and uplifting. His writing inspires my writing. Hopefully one day, I'll become a poet close to his caliber.

Now on to my favorite poem by Billy Collins --

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.