by Kat | May 15, 2025 | General, Poetry
Recently, I find myself leaning into poetry more and more. I have been using it as the “precursor” to my meditation times. It helps settle me, still my mind, and is working as the perfect bridge to 15-ish minutes of focusing on nothing but my breathing.
I love to find connections in poems… and recently I read a book of poetry from the beloved Billy Collins where he begins the book in the most incredible way. The book is The Trouble With Poetry: And Other Poems and the opening poem is You, Reader. The book is full of beautiful poems, but what Billy does with this introduction poem really is quite incredible. It is a book of poetry that is full of connections… incredible connections between writer and reader.
You, Reader
by Billy Collins
I wonder how you are going to feel
when you find out
that I wrote this instead of you.
that it was I who got up early
to sit in the kitchen
and mention with a pen
the rain-soaked windows,
the ivy wall paper,
and the goldfish circling in its bowl.
Go ahead and turn aside,
bit your lip and tear out the page,
but, listen—it was just a matter of time
before one of us happened
to notice the unlit candles
and the clock humming on the wall.
Plus, nothing happened that morning—
a song on the radio,
a car whistling along the road outside—
and I was only thinking
about the shakers of salt and pepper
that were standing side by side on a place mat.
I wondered if they had become friends
after all these years
or if they were still strangers to one another
like you and I
who manage to be known and unknown
to each other at the same time—
me at this table with a bowl of pears,
you leaning in a doorway somewhere
near some blue hydrangeas, reading this.
The Trouble With Poetry: And Other Poems © 2005 Billy Collins.
Now we all, Billy included, have this connection together and I think it is one of the best things about poetry! Please stop and see who Bonny has gathered together today!
That is it for me this week. I will see you all back here on Mond
by Kat | Apr 17, 2025 | General, Poetry
Welcome to the Third Thursday of National Poetry Month and I am again joining Bonny, Kym, Sarah, and Vera! Today is all about aging! Which for me has some days with lots of reminders and others with hardly any at all… but I think my most worrisome part of aging is memory!
And yes, it is a thing that I am noting as I repeat what my beloved Nana did regularly… run through a list of names before settling on the “right” one. Sigh. I am thankful that Billy Collins has written a poem about this phenomena because he makes me feel seen and even find a bit of humor in the situation!
Forgetfulness
by Billy Collins
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
“Forgetfulness” from Questions about Angels, by Billy Collins, © 1999.
If you want to learn more about Billy Collins, you can find information here and his website here.
I hope this poem brought a smile to your face as, perhaps, you nodded along with it. And please stop by and see all the poems Bonny has gathered today!
Header Photo by Pixabay
by Kat | Apr 10, 2025 | General, Poetry
Hello and Happy Poem In Your Pocket Day!
I am joining Bonny again today to share a poem with you all!
I love little poems that can fit in your pocket… there for when you need them! I have a “pocket” in my planner that holds little poems… and a zippered pocket in my purse that has a collection as well.
After all, you never know when you will need a poem!
Billy Collins is my go-to poet for small poems. He has a book, Musical Tables: Poems, that is full of perfect little poems! My selection today is from that book. And it is even more appropriate because right now a gentle rain is falling outside… and while I did not hear any frogs or peepers… by the end of the month I will be hearing them and Billy is right that frogs do need a bit of an exaltation!
An Exaltation of Frogs
by Billy Collins
I know it’s supposed to be larks,
but their full-throated croaking
early this rainy morning
after a night of more rain
is lifting me slightly off the floor.
An Exaltation of Frogs © Billy Collins from Musical Tables, 2022.
You can read more about Billy Collins here or on his website here.
Make sure you visit Bonny and see all the poems for your pockets today!
Header photo by Jeffry S.S.
by Kat | Apr 27, 2023 | General, Poetry
It is my favorite day… in my favorite month. The idea that you can carry poems with you… what a delightful thing! Today we are all sharing some poems for your pockets…
Today, I am sharing one for all of us for whom sleep is, at times, elusive. Apparently, dear Billy Collins is also similarly afflicted and he has some wisdom wit for us. I have memorized this bit of wit and contemplate it all too frequently… but at least I know I am in good company!
3:00 AM
by Billy Collins
Only my hand
is asleep,
but it’s a start.
3:00 AM from Musical Tables © Billy Collins, Random House New York, 2022.
If you want to know more about the delightful Billy Collins, you will find find information here, and here at his website.
Please make sure you stop and see what Kym, Bonny, and Sarah have for your pockets today!
Thank you so much for reading along with us this month!
by Kat | Dec 15, 2022 | General, Poetry
It’s the third Thursday of December and that can mean just one thing…it’s the day to share a poem!
December is a month that overflows with poetry for me. Maybe it is the darker mornings, maybe it is the twinkle lights, maybe it is the season… but December finds me steeped in poetry.
I treated myself to two new poetry books this month. I picked up Billy Collins Musical Tables and I had pre-ordered Pádraig Ó Tuama’s Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World, which was released on December 6th.
I am saving the Poetry Unbound volume to read next year… I will read one poem and essay for 50 weeks and I am very much looking forward to this addition to my poetry reading!
However, I have been unable to put down Billy Collins new book of poems! I have read it through twice and I am on my third time through currently. It is so, so good. If you think that poetry is not for you, try Billy Collins… he makes poetry fun, easy to read, but with just enough for you to think about after you have read one of his poems! And if you want to listen to a delightful interview where NPR’s Scott Simon talks with Collins about his new book of poems, you will find it here (it starts at 7:58).
Today, my selection is from Musical Tables with a very appropriate for the season poem.
Crèche
by Billy Collins
For a moment,
the ox and a sheep
looked over at each other,
then they turned away
and went back
to adoring the Child.
Billy Collins: Musical Tables © 2022. Published by Random House, Penguin Random House LLC
A huge thanks to Bonny for hosting us all today, please stop by and see what poems have been shared! And I would like to encourage you all to pick up a poetry book and read a poem or two… you might even find one that you’d like to share one with us because we’d love to have you join us!
Happy Thursday everyone!
