Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins
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 prove 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.
Source
4 comments:
Dude that's Tingley's poem! *nostalgic*
I love this poem :D You should post more poems you find that you love. Because I love them.
And we all know that you have OODLES of time on your hands for catering to the things I love :D
I feel like a horrible person, cuz I was all "Oh I wonder what her first poem was," and then it was THIS one and I burst out laughing. This was my intro to poetry in AP English lit AND a lit survey class in college, and Tingley's thing, so.....yeah. It's a good one, though! Yay! :D
@Kemendraugh: ANYTHING FOR YOU MY DARLING.
@Bahnree: Augh, I didn't know it was so over-exposed! Though he WAS the US Poet Laureate, so maybe that had something to do with it. But it seemed a good one to express my feelings about english. :D
I remember my year at Aug, there were all these times in art classes (after Tingley had read us that poem) where we'd be talking about what some painting or other was about and Dave would go, "I dunno, guys... aren't we sorta beating it with a hose?"
And then we would all wonder about whether we were actually doing that, but mostly it was funny because Dave said it.
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