WHAT BILLY COLLINS SAID AFTER THE POETRY READING LAST NIGHT
The reason there is so much bad poetry written
is that the tools of poetry are so accessible --
with pencil and paper anyone can write a poem,
unlike, say, playing the saxophone,
which requires the instrument and some lessons.
And who could just go out and start hacking
at a block of marble and make a sculpture on the first try?
The training for writing poetry is in the library.
Reading.
Reading poetry.
Reading deeply.
And you find your voice by
being jealous of other poets.
By reading other poets.
You write poetry because of
an urge to emulate,
to imitate.
No copyright on these words, folks, because Billy Collins said them -- I just wrote them down. What he said about bad poetry...ouch. I feel like a poser with this "tra-la-la, I'll write a poem a day" project. And yet, what he said about reading poetry, and the urge to emulate...I do that! I have nearly every book of poetry he's published, plus one long and two short shelves of other poetry books (not to mention Amy LV's
The Poem Farm, the weekly impromptu anthology known as
Poetry Friday, and
The Writer's Almanac).
Billy Collins has a new book of poetry, published just this month:
And now I have a whole new slew of favorite Collins poems, such as the five-liner that made the crowd burst into laughter, the one that riffs off a comment overheard in a restaurant ("I was like give me a break"), the one about having a hangover and listening to kids playing Marco Polo, the poem about memorizing a poem.
I always love when I pick up a great, new short chapter book. This week I picked up LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE
by Julie Sternberg. This is the story of Eleanor. Eleanor is eight years old and learns that he lifelong babysitter, Bibi, is moving away. It is a hard time for Eleanor as she deals with the transition.
(a PW Best Book of 2010), the first book in this trilogy (watch for Rooster's Revenge
in September), is that when the fox steals the chicken, the outcome is happily ever after and not chicken feathers at the corners of fox's mouth. In this book, Chicken leaves Fox in charge of her egg while she goes out to catch a fish for dinner. The adventure that ensues for Chicken takes up the rest of the book, except for the part at the end where there's a surprise with that egg.
I picked up quite the fun pile of books at the Debbie Miller workshop this weekend. One book that I am really excited about is SEED SOIL SUN
by Cris Peterson. This is a nonfiction book with gorgeous photographs. 
