Billy Collins – Three Poems on Writing

Madmen – Introduction to Poetry – Writing in the Afterlife

Apr 15, 2009

The three poems chosen highlight Billy Collins' workman like mentality regarding his craft; and the delicate hand required to write and interpret the poet's work.

Arguably the most accessible and popular poet of the last 20 years, Billy Collins writes poems of such grace and simplicity, as to confound the most harden critics. Collins may well be America's preeminent postmodern poet; as is his design, he often stands back and reflects upon the words as he is writing.

Ask any writer, and they'll tell you, Billy Collins is right; you can jinx a poem if you talk about it before it is done. There is something that happens to a work in progress; when it's subject is revealed, or it's plot is divulged; somehow, once the genie is out of the bottle, there's no returning it; the germ of an idea will quickly mutate and rot, once it's been prematurely exposed to the elements.

Mr. Collins goes on to describe an incident regarding a poem he had been thinking of writing, about a marauding band of madmen in Prague and Amsterdam, who were attacking works of art with bread knives and hammers.

And then Mr. Collins' drinking mate interjects: Actually, they are the real artists...The screwdriver is their brush... The real vandals are the restorers, leaving the poet to watch, as his poem in flux floats away, and exits the room, disappearing into the dark city.

Mr. Collins drives home, hoping that maybe, just maybe, the thing with wings, his poem in purgatory, could possibly be a thing with feathers, and fly back, into the cage of my heart.

Billy Collins takes the role of poetry professor, trying to teach his students how to read a poem, I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide.

Collins does a lovely job of describing the abstract nature of poetry, and the almost unconscious sense required to read and interpret poetry. But, alas to tell someone how to read a poem is much like telling someone what a dream means. A poem must be ingested before it can be digested.

To further belabor the point,if you have to explain a joke, you're not telling it right. This is essentially the point Collins is attempting to make, all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it...beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

To read the title, one would imagine the perfect place to write; a dream world where there are no distractions; no phones ringing, no door bells chiming, I imagined the atmosphere would be clear, shot with pristine light.

But, as soon as Mr. Collins arrives in the afterlife, he becomes overwhelmed by the same burdens of writing in the real world; where there are deadlines and commitments. Collins becomes consumed by the need to expertly describe in minute detail the afterlife, as soon as we arrived we would be asked to describe this place... the rusty, iron, ankle-shredding shackles- and that our next assignment would be.

There will be no time to relax and enjoy the beauty of perfection; or ponder the meaning of life and how that meaning could be converted into a work of art; there will be no leisurely floating in boats across moving waters of inspiration, not a thing is moving, only our diligent pens.

To read Madmen, Introduction to Poetry, and Writing in the Afterlife in their entirety, go to PoetryFoundation.Org

The copyright of the article Billy Collins – Three Poems on Writing in American Poetry is owned by Martin G. Wood. Permission to republish Billy Collins – Three Poems on Writing in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.