Rating: 
Summary: Poetry without Pain
Review: If you are asking yourself "how can drowning be an art?" you have sensed some of the wry humor that he includes in his poetry. I've only read a handful of poems, but I can already sense the way he puts a plain style to an often comic end. He hasn't been "laugh out loud" funny yet, but he still offers more humor than most contemporary poets. This isn't by chance, either. He knows it: I am swaying now in the hour after dinner,/ a citizen tilted back on his chair, / a creature with a full stomach-- / something you don't hear much about in poetry, / the sanctuary of hunger and deprivation. / You know: the driving rain, the boots by the door, / small birds searching for berries in winter. ("Osso Buco") I think that is a wonderful description of much contemporary poetry which many people feel must stem from pain rather than pleasure. Collins is also willing to be... well... quirky. Here is his description of the types of paintings he likes, from a poem called "Metropolis:" I like the calm rustic ones: a surface of lake, / the low bough of an oak like a long arm, / a blue smudge of distant hills, / anything with cows, especially if they are standing / in a stream, their large, vacuous faces / staring into the warm nineteenth-century afternoon. / And if one has lowered her head to drink / and the painter has indicated with flecks of white / the water pouring down from the animal's mouth, / then the day, I feel, has achieved a modest crest. // . . . . . . . . . You can have that bronze sculpture by the elevators: / "Revolution Holding the Head of Error / and Standing Over the Cadaver of Monarchy." / My place is here, leaning forward, wandering / through the microscopic eyelash details of / "Still Life with Herring, Wine and Cheese," / "Still Life with Tobacco, Grapes and a Pocket Watch," / "Still Life with Porcelain Vase, Silver Tray, and Glasses," The line that begins "anything with cows" is as close as I've come to laughing out loud. I don't know why, but something about the honest incongruity I find funny. And I love the parodic title of the sculpture (I assume it's a parody) as a counterpoint to the simplicity of the still life pictures. I think it is clear that his poetry is more in the vein of the still life than the epic or allegorical, and I find his voice refreshing. The best poem in the collection is "The Invention of the Saxophone" which brings together all of the concerns he develops in this wonderful collection.
Rating: 
Summary: "Billy Collins writes lovely poems..." John Updike
Review: John Updike says of Billy Collins' poems, "...they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides." The poems in this book picked me up and carried me, covered with gooseflesh, through these worlds. The subject matter is the everyday, the invisible behind the visible, the thin shadow of the world obscuring reality. To say that I liked this book is too weak a statement -- say that this book is now a part of me.
Rating:
Summary: Never leave home without it
Review: My copy of this book is dog-eared with use. I have studied poetry for several years and Mr. Collins is one of the few writers whose work continually draws me in. Very magnetic. I keep it in my office where I spend the most time and take it home most weekends. For an aspiring writer this is a must have. Mr. Collins exemplifies the fluidity of language with quick wit and gorgeous word-pictures. If you're looking for just a good book of poetry--this is it.
Rating:
Summary: Never leave home without it
Review: My copy of this book is dog-eared with use. I have studied poetry for several years and Mr. Collins is one of the few writers whose work continually draws me in. Very magnetic. I keep it in my office where I spend the most time and take it home most weekends. For an aspiring writer this is a must have. Mr. Collins exemplifies the fluidity of language with quick wit and gorgeous word-pictures. If you're looking for just a good book of poetry--this is it.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing is measly.
Review: Reading Collins has given me a greater appreciation for the potential of free verse. He has affected my own writing in what I am currently interpreting as a positive way...
I've forgotten how to rhyme / But that's O.K. / Perhaps was tyme!
These poems evoke recognition in the reader. For the most part, we can participate in them. They deal with simple things we can identify with. Like saxophones, dreams, clouds, writing as a craft, the Blues, a really good cigarette... and meat.
And speaking of meat, I have christened Osso Buco as my favorite Collins poem to date. I think of it as a little hymn to domestic contentment, which is "something you don't hear much about in poetry." But there is a wonderful undertone running through this poem... that the great things in history did not necessarily take place in the atmosphere of satiated bliss here described, and at first glance, seemingly lauded.
This is what I love so much about his stuff. The intelligent playfulness, the game involving what is said, and what is meant. What we see on the page is like the one-sixth of the iceberg above water... there is so much beneath, in and around the words.
There is always something more to think about when you come to the last line of a Collins poem. There is nothing trite about this collection. I've taken about a month to read through these fifty poems, because each is like a meal in itself. The book is not a party-platter of bite-size hors d'oeuvres. Nothing is measly. And Osso Buco is a feast.
You owe it to yourself to eat... I mean read, The Art Of Drowning.
T. y. L. i. I.
Rating:
Summary: MAGNETIC COLLINS!
Review: There is poetry that you perfunctorily get by with in school. Then there is poetry you pick up from second hand stores, thinking "Heck, just 15 cents, couldn't hurt" only to find that it was the price that didn't hurt not necessarily the poetry. And then there is poetry that is, well, not poetry at all but smart, beautiful, delectable ideas expressed more vertically than prose -- a real man's real thoughts about real things that almost any one of us can relate to and savour. It is this last genre of poetry that I would get myself to review, and Billy Collins is among the best of such contemporary poets-- sharp, witty, satirical, misleadingly simple but frequently flirting with meanings that deeply touch even the most ordinary among us, and without fail, an absolute thrill to read. What sheer pleasure then to see a master in top form. In this little compendium his words are spare and casual as usual, holding us riveted by the force of what is articulated but not necessarily spoken. His brush runs a wide gamut in this book, I believe Amazon has a "Look Inside" feature that'll give you an idea of the poems to expect (even the titles are interesting! "Sunday Morning with the Sensational Nightangles", "The Biography of a Cloud", "On Turning Ten", "While Eating A Pear") ..but regardless of what subject has his attention, words take on a life of their own under his prying eyes without ever losing a practical, talkative tone -- "You are so beautiful and I am a fool/to be in love with you
is a theme that keeps coming up
in songs and poems.
There seems to be no room for variation.
I have never heard anyone sing
I am so beautiful/and you are a fool to be in love with me,
even though this notion has surely/crossed the minds of women and men alike
You are so beautiful, too bad you are a fool
is another one you don't hear.
Or, you are a fool to consider me beautiful.
That one you will never hear, guaranteed..." Priceless. For the fascinating thoughts, even more than their expression, this is a sweet little collection to willingly drown in again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect translation
Review: What can one say? Except that Collins's poems in this volume are magnificent... the way they mix the ordinary with the profound, in conversational cycles, is absolutely exhilarating, and refreshing! Collins is the wittiest and funniest poet of our day, and now he's the national Poet Laureate! These poems will take you in, change you, and release you before you're ready to be released! I recommend this book to everybody.
Rating:
Summary: Splendid Poetry!
Review: What can one say? Except that Collins's poems in this volume are magnificent... the way they mix the ordinary with the profound, in conversational cycles, is absolutely exhilarating, and refreshing! Collins is the wittiest and funniest poet of our day, and now he's the national Poet Laureate! These poems will take you in, change you, and release you before you're ready to be released! I recommend this book to everybody.
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