Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins

[The Comedian]

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 at the time.

And there's the one where you undress
the poet of Amherst, and another about
quoting Humbert.

My favorites are "Directions" and "Marginalia";
I scribbled next to each.
I [bracketed] a stanza in the first
and wrote an airy "AWWAH"
next to the line about "egg salad" in the second.
If a poem can be "cute"
and meaningful at the exact same moment, Billy. . .
you can pull it off.

Thanks for Sailing Alone Around the Room. I tried to picture
Mr. Slocum reading this
as he rounded
The Cape of Good Hope
on his way home.

My grade: 8/10 heroic couplets

[Lynne50]

Oh, I am so glad you found and enjoy the poetry of Billy Collins. I had the pleasure of seeing him in person last year at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Listening to him read his own work is wonderful, too. His cadence and tone of voice is just perfect for a poetry reading. I especially love his poems entitled, 'The Lanyard', plus 'Another Reason I Don't Keep a Gun in the House' and finally, 'Forgetfulness'. You can find that one on Youtube. It has been animated. I think he has a new book coming out in April. I can't remember the title, but it has an airplane on the cover. I think you will find yourself going back to him over and over and discovering new things in his 'simple' poems.

[The Comedian]

Good to hear from you Lynne and thanks for your comment. I will most certainly return to Collins' work again. I really enjoyed his work. And as a teacher, I found many of his poems really teach-able, both in themselves and as vehicles to poetic language and other poets' work.

[qimissung]

I have got to get a copy of this. I've read just a few of his, but I've loved every one. my personal favorite of his is "Sonnet."