Musical Tables IWF12948394

Whenever I pick up a new book of poems, I flip through the pages looking for small ones. Just as I might have trust in an abstract painter more if I knew he or she could draw a credible chicken, I have faith in poets who can go short.Billy Collins

You can spot a Billy Collins poem immediately. The amiable voice, the light touch, the sudden turn at the end. He “puts the fun back in profundity, says poet Alice Fulton. In his own words, his poems tend to begin in Kansas and end in Oz.

Now Americas favorite poet (The Wall Street Journal) has found a new form for his unique poetic style: the small poem. Here Collins writes about his trademark themes of nature, animals, poetry, mortality, absurdity, and loveall in a handful of lines. Neither haiku nor limerick, the small poem pushes to an extreme poetrys famed power to condense emotional and conceptual meaning. Inspired by the small poetry of writers as diverse as William Carlos Williams, W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan, and Charles Simic, and written with Collinss recognizable wit and wisdom, the poems ofMusical Tablesshow one of our greatest poets channeling his unique voice into a new phase of his exceptional career.

3:00 AM

Only my hand
is asleep,
but its a start.

Paperback, Nov 14th 2023