The sixth book of poems by the Lehman College professor has the
same carefree, if not careless, sensibility of his earlier work.
His catalogues of everyday moments-a jazz riff heard, a book
passage remembered, a bird contemplated-aspire to a Frank
O'Hara-like chattiness. But Collins (in poems such as "I Chop Some
Parsley While Listening to Art Blakely's Version of 'Three Blind
Mice' ") lacks that great cosmopolitan's jaunty bop and charm.
Collins's semirural musings rely on mundane imagery (night is
"black and silky"; the woods are "dense green") and his
regular-guy, Buddhist-joker pose-which can be funny, though he's
never particularly witty or ironic. These forty-odd poems that
celebrate the ephemeral seem, appropriately, dashed-off and
therefore forgettable. (Kirkus Reviews)
Winner of the 1999 Paterson Poetry Prize Over the past decade,
Billy Collins has emerged as the most beloved American poet since
Robert Frost, garnering critical acclaim and broad popular appeal.
Annie Proulx admits, "I have never before felt possessive about a
poet, but I am fiercely glad that Billy Collins is ours." John
Updike proclaims his poems "consistently startling, more serious
than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and
some others besides." This special, limited edition celebrates
Billy Collins's years as U.S. Poet Laureate. Picnic, Lightning-one
of the books that helped establish and secure his reputation and
popularity during the 1990s-combines humor and seriousness, wit and
sublimity. His poems touch on a wide range of subjects, from jazz
to death, from weather to sex, but share common ground where the
mind and heart can meet. Whether reading him for the first time or
the fiftieth, this collector's edition is a must-have for anyone
interested in the poet the New York Times calls simply "the real
thing."
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