Rating: 
Summary: Billy Collins, Best Contemporary Poet
Review: I used to read only classical poetry, but then a friend of mine told me about this poem called "Questions About Angels" and when I read it, the poem blew me away. Quickly purchasing the book, I went home and read it cover to cover. Collins has created a living being in this book, expanding on old concepts and making them new, while creating many of his own as well. All who enjoy modern poetry will love this book, and all who enjoy classical poetry will find in it the beauty they love merged with a realism that will leave them spell bound.
Rating: 
Summary: Not so Entertaining
Review: I was instructed to read this book as part of a summer reading program for my Freshman English Comp class. I was not so impressed with Collins work. After reading several poems, we were instructed to answer questions. Who can answer questions on poetry? If you didn't write it, you don't know what it means!!! Oh, well, all in all, I wasn't real keen on Collins. But I did like his poem Schoolsville which was not included in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Pert images in pragmatic landscapes
Review: It's been a long time since I've picked up a book of poetry that projects such wonderfully crafted images and slips the humor so cleverly into the denouement of the poem. Brave, Mr. Collins. As a novelist, I can appreciate the fine crafting that goes into your deft pieces.
Rating:
Summary: Should be Required Reading for jaded citizens
Review: Several weeks ago I first discovered Billy Collins. A newspaper article had a quotation where he discussed the fact that he uses subjects and predicates when writing poetry. This peculiar poetic quirk led me to go online to discover that poetry. There I found the poem "Nostalgia", which is included in this book.I read it, enjoyed it, passed it on to friends. Then a strange thing happened - lines from Nostalgia kept cropping up in my memory. Each time it happened, I gained a deeper respect for the poem. I read and reread my cut-and-paste copy of Nostalgia. Finally, the only possible result occurred - I bought the book that contained it. A book filled with similar marvels. Reviewers far more renowned that I have already given incredible praise to Billy Collin's work. I'm a pretty ordinary person. I've never studied so that I know all the "proper" elements of a poem. So what can I add that hasn't already been said? I can add that Billy Collins reaches people like me. He takes our ordinary, everyday experiences and looks at them with magic eyes. He sees - and says - the things we all want to feel about life and its infinite possibilities. Above all, he makes me feel good about my life and my world. I urge you to explore the Collins world - to get that same surge of energy that I have experienced.
Rating:
Summary: Should be Required Reading for jaded citizens
Review: Several weeks ago I first discovered Billy Collins. A newspaper article had a quotation where he discussed the fact that he uses subjects and predicates when writing poetry. This peculiar poetic quirk led me to go online to discover that poetry. There I found the poem "Nostalgia", which is included in this book. I read it, enjoyed it, passed it on to friends. Then a strange thing happened - lines from Nostalgia kept cropping up in my memory. Each time it happened, I gained a deeper respect for the poem. I read and reread my cut-and-paste copy of Nostalgia. Finally, the only possible result occurred - I bought the book that contained it. A book filled with similar marvels. Reviewers far more renowned that I have already given incredible praise to Billy Collin's work. I'm a pretty ordinary person. I've never studied so that I know all the "proper" elements of a poem. So what can I add that hasn't already been said? I can add that Billy Collins reaches people like me. He takes our ordinary, everyday experiences and looks at them with magic eyes. He sees - and says - the things we all want to feel about life and its infinite possibilities. Above all, he makes me feel good about my life and my world. I urge you to explore the Collins world - to get that same surge of energy that I have experienced.
Rating:
Summary: DEVIL COMES IN POET'S SHOES
Review: The poetry found in this book has merit only in the context of a soul having made a deal with the devil. The "angels" of Blake and St. John of the Cross have no power to redeem these verses. A cold, dark, empty syn-tax permeates the stanzas. There is no light or Dantean hope. This book languishes in the inferno it creates.
Rating: 
Summary: Playful writing that plays for keeps
Review: These poems are simple, yet often startling little gems. Thoroughly earthy and solid, they still manage not only to tell the truth, but to surprise us with it. I find myself reading these poems over the phone to friends.
Rating:
Summary: Glorious Poetry!
Review: This book is full of the jazz of every day life. Gorgeous in its word-pictures, imagery, and rhythms, and with a ripe, bursting sense of humor that comes out at all opportunities. It is poetry, "even for musicians." This is a book for body and soul... for everyone... it's so accessible, it draws the reader in deep, before awareness is present ... it is an exploration ... Collins is the funniest, wittiest poet of our day, and now the national Poet Laureate. His work is great. I recommend this book to everybody.
Rating:
Summary: Glorious Poetry!
Review: This book is full of the jazz of every day life. Gorgeous in its word-pictures, imagery, and rhythms, and with a ripe, bursting sense of humor that comes out at all opportunities. It is poetry, "even for musicians." This is a book for body and soul... for everyone... it's so accessible, it draws the reader in deep, before awareness is present ... it is an exploration ... Collins is the funniest, wittiest poet of our day, and now the national Poet Laureate. His work is great. I recommend this book to everybody.
Rating:
Summary: Accessible to the poetically challenged.
Review: This book was a gift to me, and I am grateful to the giver.
She knows that I need stuff that makes sense!
That's one of the things I like most about this collection, it makes sense. It is accessible to the somewhat poetically challenged (as I consider myself to be). But beyond this... just the use of the words, the FIT of the words, the powerful (yet subtle) sort of surreptitious little attack in the end of each poem, always making the reader go... "Hmmm".
Collins is a wordsmith, and exquisitely so. Satisfying. He is to the typewriter what Bruce Hornsby is to the piano. You listen to both, and when they're done their thing, you say to yourself "It would be very difficult to have done that any better." Billy Collins makes me feel like everything is a poem waiting to happen. This is because he chooses a lot of common occurrence, simple things to write about. Stuff like spending an afternoon examining ancient maps in a library while the rain falls outside. Or stopping to pick wisteria from the side of the road. Waking up with a wicked hangover. Kafka picking up a pen and promptly changing you into a goldfish or a lost mitten, or (better yet) the New York Public Library. How about having your own faithful table lamp showing up at your funeral... "like an old servant, dragging the tail of its cord / the small circle of mourners parting to make room."
Wonderful stuff. Everyday stuff like that.
He's witty and terse; thematically timeless / He's all in free verse, and totally rhymeless.
4.5 exploding stars!
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