Lately I've been reading Billy Collins, that poet who is so widely read and who is slightly snubbed by those higher up in the poetry realms as "common poetry". I'm not just making this up; once I heard that phrase used on him.
I like Billy Collins. He's smart, interesting, and a sharp writer. His popularity, I would venture, is largely due to his engaging and funny reading style, but his writing lasts because his poetry lives on the page, too. I admire lots of things about him--his images are lucid and effortless, his voice is clever and engaging, and he's not afraid to use a little space to lead up to where he's going. I especially think it's interesting that he regularly uses quotes from other readings, and doesn't just use them as a side quote, but interacts with them. Here's one of my favorites.
The Four-Moon Planet by Billy Collins
I have envied the four-moon planet. --The Notebooks of Robert Frost
Maybe he was thinking of the song
"What a Little Moonlight Can Do"
and became curious about
what a lot of moonlight might be capable of.
But wouldn't this be too much of a good thing?
and what if you couldn't tell them apart
and they always rose together
like pale quadruplets entering a living room?
Yes, there would be enough light
to read a book or write a letter at midnight,
and if you drank enough tequila
you might see eight of them roving brightly above.
But think of the two lovers on a beach,
his arm around her bare shoulder,
thrilled at how close they were feeling tonight
while he gazed at one moon and she another.
from Ballistics: Poems (2008)
Here are the things I think when I read this (for the fourth or fifth time):
What could a lot of moonlight be capable of? How very clever. Now I'm thinking about something totally new.
"Pale quadruplets entering a living room" is so odd and simply fabulous. I can just see it, can't you?
Seeing double on a whole new level--eight moons would be great, and is a funny image.
And then we get to the last stanza, and it's sort of funny, and sort of sad--the difficulty having four moons can bring. Collins ties in the two threads of four moons and romance in each stanza, without feeling like he's working at it.
I appreciate Billy Collins because his poetry lets me into what he's thinking--I don't have to slave over it or pretend to appreciate it academically. He's speaking my language, and I genuinely like it. I think this is the place of poetry, not to the exclusion of other kinds of "higher" poetry, but in its own place, as a concise and lovely art that most people can enjoy.
If I may be so bold. And, frankly, I think Billy Collins would agree with me; he's the one imagining that the book of a certain fellow poet (of whom he is not fond) being shot with a high-speed bullet into smithereens. I'm feeling pretty tame after that particular poem ("Ballistics", p. 31-32).
Way to stick up for the underdog. :) Sometimes being straightforward in writing can mean so much more than pale allusions. It can be easy to try too hard and come up with something that is maybe beautiful but ultimately meaningless. Sometimes keeping it simple (or "common") is best...and harder to do well, I think!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. He makes it look easy, but I've been trying and...it's not.
DeleteElana! What I like about this is that you are clearly resonating with a similar mind to your own. So imitate it! Learn it and craft it until being straightforward in a clear way is guided clearly in writing. I think poetry gets a bad reputation because of its allusive nature. Billy Collins is creative yet concrete. I like this a lot, but personally this style would be very difficult for me to replicate!
ReplyDeleteI love Billy Collins. What's really funny is that the authors that write to the common people (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens... Collins) are the ones that become the classics. They were looked down upon in their own time because they wrote commonly, but everyone else who weren't in the elite class loved them, and their works continued because they can be understood by all people. We were talking about this in Classic Lit the other day, when Dr. Aling was talking about how Dante and his contemporaries wrote in Italian instead of Latin, and people called it the "vulgar language." Look how far they've come! You don't have to dig beyond reasonable means to come up with the depth of the poem, if that makes any sense.
ReplyDeleteI also love how Collins's poems (more often than not) could be written out as straight sentences. I think that's what makes them so readable. Kind of like a found or prose poem; the style is so common that it's inviting and yet artistic enough to be beautiful. His thoughts are just refreshing too; kind of whimsical. I like that a lot. I wish I had thoughts like his.
Thanks for sharing the poem! It's lovely.
i haven't read a lot of Collins's work, but the few poems (including this one) that i have read i have enjoyed.
ReplyDeletei appreciate the number of different perspectives that he puts into this poem. It seems to fit the moment too, since there is not just one moon but four.
Accordingly, there are four stanzas with four lines in each. That's a nice form-al touch, i think.
"But wouldn't this be too much of a good thing?" That question took me by surprise. i love it. This line adds into this multiple-perspective poem the presence of Collins's own perspective. Like you said, we get to know what he thinks too. The poem has four moons, a number of different people and places, and the poet guiding us along the Scrooge's Christmas Eve spirits.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I almost never understand poetry. So I LOVE this poem! I haven't read much of Collins before, but I think I might put him on my summer reading list after seeing this post.
ReplyDeleteIt's really refreshing, I think, to have those people who are good writers and yet still down to earth. Sometimes writers get a reputation of being off in la la land all the time, thinking deeply about who-knows-what in a corner of a coffee shop because "that's what writers do." But I believe any regular, "non-literary" person could sit down and read this poem, understand it, and maybe even enjoy it.
Now I'm feeling all inspired to write some imitation poetry (something that almost never happens). Thanks for sharing, Elena!
I love your poem example! I've been coming across several poems like that in my reading, and they're lots of fun (and, in most cases, more memorable to me than the poetry that is written in a more elevated style). The thing that really impresses me, though, is that it's surprisingly hard (for me, at least) to capture that tone and simplicity in a genuinely good poem. It's almost like watching the Olympics and then trying out one of the sports, only to realize it's not nearly as simple and easy as it appears. Just goes to show how brilliant Collins is!
ReplyDeleteI love Billy Collins! When I was whining and complaining all the way through Advanced Poetry because I stubbornly held to a dislike of contemporary poetry, it was Billy Collins whom I finally found and appreciated. If you get the chance, go on YouTube and look up "The Country--Billy Collins Animated Poetry." I absolutely love that one!
ReplyDeleteThere may be a place for poetry that nobody can understand, but there is something to be said for poetry that can be understood by a great many people while still remaining poetry.