Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins

Published in 2005. 88 pages.


I never would have picked up this book by the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2004 if it hadn't been a pick for Natalie's Book Club. I don't read many poetry books, but I'm glad I read this one.

One of my favorite poems was "Special Glasses" - which I read to my heart-broken 15-year-old daughter the morning after I read it. I think it helped.

Two others I liked a lot were "Eastern Standard Time" - which I thought was brilliant for its ordinariness - and "Flock" - which I found to be a tender reference to Bible truths from a completely unexpected source.

"The Lanyard" seemed to be a consensus favorite when the group met for lunch. For me, finishing the poem resulted in a gasp for air, so poignant are the final words.

Watch the full episode. See more Poetry Everywhere.

2011.12

5 comments:

  1. Wow! After your review I am totally stoked to read this. Thank you for a great recommendation.

    Have a super Friday!

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  2. Upon reading this, I looked up the poem and put this book on hold at my library. On Tuesday, I posted the poem, here:

    http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2011/04/lanyard-by-billy-collins-teaser.html

    Before I got back here to tell you about it, tornadoes hit our area, and I posted about my power outage whenever I could get to wi-fi with my laptop:

    http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/search/label/tornado

    Come see.

    Are you okay? It's been over two weeks, and I miss you. I'd call and check on you, if I had your number.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Inside a Book: I hope you enjoy the book!

    Bonnie: Thanks for your concern! It's been an "interesting" few weeks with a kidney stone, but I'm doing much better and hope to get back to posting book reviews shortly. I'm glad that you are also okay given the "excitement" of tornados. I'll be by your blog to see you!

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  4. I wanted to give you a heads up about something I’m working on … I’ve been so thrilled with all the new friends, great blogs, and wonderful posts I’ve read over the past 8 months (my shot but rewarding blogging career), that I wanted to show an expression of my luv and admiration. Plus, I thought you might be feeling the same way—wanting to spread the luv! Check out the idea at my blog: http://alife-sizecatholicblog.blogspot.com/p/pay-it-forward.html PS. This post of yours got past me somehow--I love the video!

    ReplyDelete