Author: Billy Collins

There are many that I miss Having sent my last one out a car window Sparking along the road one […]

The name of the author is the first to go Followed obediently by the title, the plot, The heartbreaking conclusion, […]

It seems these poets have nothing Up their ample sleeves They turn over so many cards so early, Telling us […]

I knew that James Whistler was part of the Paris scene, But I was still surprised when I found the […]

And I start wondering how they came to be blind. If it was congenital, they could be brothers and sister, […]

The Wind is ghosting around the house tonight And as I lean against the door of sleep I begin to […]

Remember the 1340’s? We were doing a dance called the Catapult. You always wore brown, the color craze of the […]

I wait for the holiday crowd to clear the beach Before stepping onto the first wave. Soon I am walking […]

Today we woke up to a revolution of snow, Its white flag waving over everything, The landscape vanished, Not a […]

I ask them to take a poem And hold it up to the light Like a color slide Or press […]

The early sun is so pale and shadowy, I could be looking up at a ghost In the shape of […]

You are so beautiful and I am a fool To be in love with you Is a theme that keeps […]

Sometimes the notes are ferocious, Skirmishes against the author Raging along the borders of every page In tiny black script. […]

They say you can jinx a poem If you talk about it before it is done. If you let it […]

In the usual iconography of the temple or the local Wok You would never see him doing such a thing, […]

Smokey the Bear heads Into the autumn woods With a red can of gasoline And a box of wooden matches. […]

I am standing on a disused iron bridge That was erected in 1902, According to the iron plaque bolted into […]

The whole idea of it makes me feel Like I’m coming down with something, Something worse than any stomach ache […]

The way the dog trots out the front door Every morning Without a hat or an umbrella, Without any money […]

I turn around on the gravel And go back to the house for a book, Something to read at the […]

Now it is time to say what you have to say. The room is quiet. The whirring fan has been […]

It could be the name of a prehistoric beast That roamed the Paleozoic earth, rising up On its hind legs […]

What scene would I want to be enveloped in More than this one, An ordinary night at the kitchen table, […]

There is a section in my library for death And another for Irish history, A few shelves for the poetry […]

As sure as prehistoric fish grew legs And sauntered off the beaches into forests Working up some irregular verbs for […]

In most self-portraits it is the face that dominates: Cezanne is a pair of eyes swimming in brushstrokes, Van Gogh […]

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna Or on any river for that matter To be perfectly honest. Not […]

You know the brick path in the back of the house, The one you see from the kitchen window, The […]

It is possible to be struck by a Meteor or a single-engine plane while Reading in a chair at home. […]

“Every time we get a big gale around here some people just refuse to batten down.” We estimate that Ice […]