National Poetry Month: April 17th

Find “The Revenant” by Billy Collins at Off the Shelf’s new location on Evanston Public Library’s redesigned website.

See you there!!

 

National Poetry Month: April 2nd

Cheerios by Billy Collins

One bright morning in a restaurant in Chicago
as I waited for my eggs and toast,
I opened the Tribune only to discover
that I was the same age as Cheerios.

Indeed, I was a few months older than Cheerios
for today, the newspaper announced
was the seventieth birthday of Cheerios
whereas mine had occurred earlier in the year.

Already I could hear them whispering
behind my stooped and threadbare back,
Why that dude’s older than Cheerios
the way they used to say

Why that’s as old as the hills,
only the hills are much older than Cheerios
or any American breakfast cereal,
and more noble and enduring are the hills,

I surmised as a bar of sunlight illuminated my orange juice.

This poem was selected by Kate K. (North Branch)

Poetry Copyright Notice

U. of Texas Purchases Poet’s Archive

Former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins sold his papers to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The archive contains notebooks, doodles, clippings, and drafts of published and unpublished poems, as well as correspondence, recordings, and diaries. Mr. Collins decided to sell his papers after realizing how much material he had, including lines of a poem written on the backs of bank deposit slips. “I tried to look very serious as if I were making a monster deposit,” he said. You can read the rest of this NYT article here – and check the EPL catalog for works by this popular and prolific poet.

Laura

National Poetry Month: April 15th

Forgetfulness by Billy Collins

The name of the author is a 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.

It is as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor

decided to retire to the southern hemispheres of the brain,

to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Billy Collins action poetry

To check out some poems by Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States, that have been set to animation, go to the Billy Collins action poetry.

(M. Boylan, Reader’s Services)

National Poetry Month: April 18th

Class Picture, 1954 by Billy Collins

I am the third one
from the left in the third row.

The girl I have been in love with
since the 5th grade is just behind me
to the right, the one with the bangs.

The boy who pushes me down
in the playground
is the last one on the left in the top row.

And my friend Paul is the second one
in the second row, the one
with his collar sticking out, next to the teacher.

But that’s not all-
if you look carefully you can see
our house in the background

with its porch and its brick chimney
and up in the clouds
you can see the faces of my parents.

and over there, off to the side,
Superman is balancing
a green car over his head with one hand.

This poem was selected by Shira S. (Reader’s Services)

Poetry Copyright Notice

National Poetry Month: April 11th

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
even 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.

National Poetry Month: April 1st

Litany by Billy Collins

You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine…

-Jacques Crickillon

You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass,
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.