Progymnasmata

This is my review of Billy Collins' book Sailing Alone Around the Room . It contains selected and new poems. Collins is America's poet laureate.

A Blogger Reviews a Poet

It's not that you don't discuss death.
You do.
And, of course, you're self-conscious.
You all are.

But you're funny, Billy. I smiled the best
kind of smile when I read your poem on
the long titles of some Chinese poems
that you were reading ...

I once asked a class of about 25 students:

"You're all here to learn something of value, right?"

"Yes" they replied with vigorous and skeptical head-nodding.

"Nice", I said. "That's good."

Then I went around the room and asked each student to respond to this request: "Please tell me one valuable thing to know?"

I added that expressions such as "stuff that will get me ...

There are few who attempt it. There are even fewer who actually enjoy it. But those latter are a lucky, lucky few. Canoeing in winter. The other day I finally got to go. . . .

The Conditions Have to Be Right
It's obvious, but to canoe in winter, you need to have an open stretch of water. This basic requirement is often the biggest obstacle to winter canoeing here in the north. Winters are harsh, cold, and long.

Luckily, we had a brief thaw that that opened a ...

I'm a sucker for well-turned prose -- for aphorisms, one-liners, and sage advice. So I thought I'd compile some from my current book, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

In addition to the Moby-Dick material, I'll briefly reflect on those ideas.

On Religion and Faith
"I say, we good Presbyterian Christians should be charitable in these things [unfamiliar religious practices], and not fancy ourselves so vastly superior to other mortals, pagans and what not. . ...

Last weekend I washed the all the windows in our house -- both inside and out.

It was a typical fall day in the North -- crisp-cold with bright sun and a pine-scented air.

I took off all the screens and "dusted" them outside by giving them the twice-over with my high-powered leaf-blower. Then I took my spray bottle of glass cleaner, a roll or two of paper towels, and small step ladder. . . .and went to work.

This project is the sort that ...