I’m still pondering the importance of paying attention, especially to joy. I think the reason Mary Oliver and Billy Collins are my two favorite living poets is probably their knack for paying close attention to things many of us miss so that we might see something we hadn’t seen...
Poetry as Word, Sound, and Image
posted by DJL
I’m curious what you think. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you probably know that Billy Collins is one of my favorite poets. I love the simplicity of language and imagery, the unpretentiousness of his poems and person, his ability to evoke emotion and insight through succinct use of language, and the reliable good humor he employs (just read To My Favorite 17 Year-Old High School Girl or Litany for stellar examples). In the TED Talk below, he shares a description of an invitation he received to allow some of his poetry to be illustrated in short films. And here’s where my question come: do you think the...
The Lanyard
posted by DJL
Billy Colllins’ poem puts me in mind, not of the countless rather worthless crafts or gifts I made my mother over the years – though I suspect she did not count them as worthless – but rather of the labor and delivery room in which our first child was born. I remember as vividly as if it...
Dear Reader
posted by DJL
I am regularly amazed at how unrelentingly and completely relational identity is. I noticed this when my children were old enough to start figuring out who was who in our family. They would say things like, “So Aunt Nancy is Mommy’s sister and Uncle Jim is Daddy’s brother. Grammy is...
Forgetfulness
posted by DJL
I didn’t set out to make February “Billy Collins Month”, but it appears that I have. ☺ So one more of my favorites: “Forgetfulness.” If you have a parent or sibling or friend who has experienced memory loss, you know how painful and frightening it can be. Memory, in so many ways,...