From Continuum’s facebook page today, a poem from Billy Collins – a little reminder to leave room for the mystery in poetry (applies to all the arts!) and to proceed with exploring curiosity:
Here is a poem about reading poems, written by Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate, in honor of his birthday, today.
Introduction to Poetry
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.
Lovely – and illuminating!
Fantastic post and poem… 🙂 xoxo, h