000 01695cam a2200217 a 4500
001 024345
005 20231009193215.0
008 070723s2005 nyu 000 0 eng
010 _a2005046562
020 _a037550382X
082 0 0 _a811.54 COL
100 1 _aCollins, Billy
_d(1941-)
245 1 4 _aThe trouble with poetry and other poems
_c/ Billy Collins
250 _a1st ed
260 _aNew York
_b: Random House
_c, c2005.
300 _a88 p.
_c; 22 cm.
520 _a"The birds are in their trees,/ the toast is in the toaster,/ and the poets are at their windows." As implied by this line-and the book's very title-a major concern of Collins's new collection is the art, the craft, of poetry. As the former poet laureate enters his seventh decade ("Because tomorrow/ I will turn 420 in dog years,"), it is an appropriate time, perhaps, for him to reflect on his aesthetics, on the seemingly casual, natural, sure steps that brought about his poems: "The other day as I was ricocheting slowly/ off the pale blue walls of this room/ bouncing from typewriter to piano,/ from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor." Collins is as close as anyone in contemporary American poetry will likely get to being a household name. Blame his sweet, smart, and wise poems, which are always accessible; his colorful personality and ungoverned humor; or his remarkable energy-it is, no doubt, a combination of all these things. "The trouble with poetry," he suggests, "is that it encourages the writing of more poetry," and this collection is as rich and mischievous as anything he has given us previously.
586 _aUS Poet Laureate 2001-3
650 4 _aPoetry, American
942 _cMO
999 _c264910
_d264910