Last Thursday, I heard the poet Billy Collins speak at the Free Library of Philadelphia. I would like to say that it was in honor of National Poetry Month, but it wasn’t—I just love Billy Collins. He’s ancient now—his glasses are old enough to be called spectacles, if that gives you any idea. But he wasn’t slow. I thought perhaps he would be boring—excellent writing does not guarantee good public speaking—or, worse, too academic, but happily I was mistaken. Billy Collins was witty, thoughtful, and unpretentious. Sometimes he was all three at once. I suppose I should have known he would be wonderful after having read his poetry. If you haven’t heard of Billy Collins, he writes what I like to call “everyday poetry”—poetry written so that you can understand it; Billy Collins writes about normal things using normal words. I love it. I have never read a Billy Collins poem and, when I’ve finished it, looked up and asked, “What the heck did that even mean?” He writes about regular things we notice every day and makes them unexpected and amusing, like in this poem entitled “Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House”:
The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.
The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,
and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.
When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton
While the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.
Labels: poetry
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yey for billy collins. methinks that now, after two library workers have written about his genius--the library perhaps should include some of his poetry amongst the shelves?
Anonymous said...
April 30, 2010 at 5:43 PM