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The DRE at my church sends out a weekly inspirational email, which tends to consist of a poem she liked that week. Many of them are generically and forgettably uplifting, but I found this week's choice very interesting; it made me stop and reread it again, slower, and then a third time. I usually skim Jennifer's choices and immediately delete the emails. This one, as you can see, I am still thinking about.

Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room

and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: ithaca, ny
Crossposts: http://edenfalling.livejournal.com/497383.html

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From:

willowgreen.livejournal.com

I love that one! Billy Collins is really good.

From:

edenfalling

It is definitely a poem that rewards rereading. :-)

From:

hungrytiger11.livejournal.com

If you haven't heard him read it yet, maybe its on youtube? It'd be worth the hunt. I like Billy Collins.

From:

edenfalling

I did a quick search on YouTube (I did not have the patience to check every last result, so I may well be missing things) and it seems that while you can find everyone from Garrison Keillor to middle school classes reading that poem, you cannot find Billy Collins himself reading it. Very strange!

From:

hungrytiger11.livejournal.com

:( Bummer. Then again, now that I think about it, I have it on CD so maybe they make an effort to not have it out on the internet, running "free" for everyone to see.....

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