Rating: 
Summary: Surprise
Review: I don't know where I have been, but I just discovered Billy Collins a couple of weeks ago when he appeared in person for a poetry reading in Traverse City, Michigan. Wow! I bought Nine Horses and The Art of Drowning that night. Nine Horses is a wonderful book. Full of wit and humor along with very profound and meaningful poems. Most are short and the entire book can be read in no time at all. It was awesome seeing him in person, and I am glad I heard him read because I can now picture him and hear his voice when I read the poems. Nine Horses left me with a desire to read everything he has ever written - and I intend to do just that! His poems are fun, and some have an element of surprise at the end. Many are just the kind of thoughts that anyone might have on a lazy, summer afternoon while staring up at the clouds. Get this book. Read his poems, you will definitely not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous, Beautiful Poetry!
Review: I got this book Saturday morning and read it straight through, not something I often do with a book of poetry. Reading each poem was like looking into a lucid snapshot of a tiny fragment of life. I just felt happy to be alive and part of the luminous world he so magnificently described in his poems.....I highly recommend this book and plan to read all of Mr. Collins' poetry.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous, Beautiful Poetry!
Review: I got this book Saturday morning and read it straight through, not something I often do with a book of poetry. Reading each poem was like looking into a lucid snapshot of a tiny fragment of life. I just felt happy to be alive and part of the luminous world he so magnificently described in his poems.....I highly recommend this book and plan to read all of Mr. Collins' poetry.
Rating:
Summary: Poetry for Everybody
Review: I may just be lazy, but I've always liked poetry, and literature in general, that seems born of an "everyday" life like I have lived. This doesn't mean that poetry needs to be unintelligent. It just means that I generally prefer Robert Frost or Emily Dickinson to T.S. Eliot or Wallace Stevens. If I have to take a semester class on something like Ulysses in order to have some grasp on it, it's not worth it to me, and such literature seems to be far too elitist. Luckily, we have writers like Billy Collins that can satisfy both my tastes and my professors'. Collins finds the beauty and humor and mystery inherent in the everyday. He is in awe of this world with all of its absurdities and simple marvels, and he has the language to express his wonder. He is one of those strange people that can still see, and reading his poetry can help us--all of us--to see as well.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful wordsmith delivers
Review: If you've read the one star review that talks about Billy Collins writing about nothing and how worthless that is, then you've gotten one point of view - allow me to offer another. Doing "nothing" can be the height of human existence, and "nothing" can also be a very subjective perspective. I don't see myself as doing "nothing" when I'm laying in the summer grass staring at the shapes of clouds. I don't know if it is an American or simply a modern trait to categorize a lack of physical action as "doing nothing" but it certainly isn't a viewpoint shared by everyone. I happen to think that poetry about an awareness of things going on around and inside of us that we are not normally aware of is beautiful, and is as worthy a subject for poetry as any. In "Nine Horses" words once again flow off pages and trickle into the recesses of my soul, filling pockets of emptiness that I hadn't been aware sat idle amongst the consciousness of their surroundings. Turning these pages is shocking, humorous, sad, enriching, challenging and altogether enjoyable. There is a simple appeal, but the words are not simple. This is a fine craftsman in his workshop, doing what he's driven to do, and we are all better for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Touching
Review: In Sailing Alone Around the Room, Billy Collins gathered some of his most breath-taking pieces, some new ones and many drawn from his previous works like Scotland, Not Touching, and I Chop Some Parsley...I am sure his readers, who were enamored with his engaging and unpretentious style wished that Nine Horses would serve a similar dish or even better, but it does not. Simplicity was beauty in Sailing, but Nine Horses is too plain. How I wish Collins would write more poems similar to Duck/Rabbit and Not Touching.
Rating:
Summary: I wish that I was a droplet of water
Review: Last night I received Billy Collins' new book of poems, "Nine Horses" and inhaled it in a single sitting. I then sat down and read it through a second time. This morning I am skipping through its pages, reliving favorite moments as if it were my own well-lived life. I am madly, impetuously, and hopelessly in love with this book. I wish that I was a droplet of water and that this book were a sponge.
Rating:
Summary: Finally!
Review: Like some expensive and well-prepared full-course meal at the most impressive restaurant in town, NINE HORSES leaves you satisfied and wanting to come back for more. The expert craftsmanship of this poetry is staggering. Beautifully constructed and paced with a brilliance not previously seen before, this collection will take your breath away. Finally, someone who knows how to write poetry that "makes sense" yet doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator. Also recommended: "Questions About Angels," McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood" and "The Hours"
Rating: 
Summary: Another Bad Billy
Review: Nine Horses in another in a long line of boring and bland books by Billy Collins. Reading this sad collection of drivel, as I joke mind you, I am once again reminded as to why such a non-vibrant bore, as Collins is, has become the Poet Laureate of a non-poetry caring nation like the USA. Not all poetry is overly verbose and full of unknowable english. In fact, a lot of poets write in language as common as Billy Collins--the fact is, they all do it better and in a much, much more interesting way. This book and Collins' others are great if you are just beginning to read poetry or are three years old, otherwise i'd find something else.
Rating:
Summary: Wordbound.
Review: Poetry is the ultimate headrush. It's an unscheduled eclipse, unexpected lightning from a clear blue sky, a storm that engages senses and emotions. It's orgasmic. Collins' work is about nothing in particular. It's not poetry. Further, it eradicates the necessary line between poetry and prose. It's wordbound. There is no room left for that remarkable tango between mind and emotion that dances us away from politics and Wall Street and into the soul of our humanity. There is no space here. Collins constructs a prison of words. It is heresy to compare this man to Frost, as I understand some reviewers are doing.
|
