Great Poem

I never heard of Billy Collins until he became poet laurette. Ever since then, I've been a big fan. As the interview in Poets & Writers stated, part of his charm is that his poems are so 'user friendly' for lack of a better world.

Collins doesn't seem to belong to the school of poets who, when you've read one of their poems, you think "I've no idea what the hell is going on, but it must be good because it seems complex."

Here is a great example about what is best in Collins' work.

Adage

When it’s late at night and branches
are hanging against the windows,
you might think that love is just a matter

Of leaping out of the frying pan of yourself
into the fire of someone else,
but it’s a little more complicated that that.

It’s more like trading the two bird
who might be hiding in that bush
for the one you are not holding in your hand.

A wise man once said that love
was like forcing a horse to drink
but then everyone stopped thinking of him as wise.

Let us be clear about something.
Love is not as simple as getting up
on the wrong side of the bed wearing the emperor’s clothes.

No, it’s more like the way the pen
feels after it has defeated the sword.
It’s a little like the penny saved or the nine dropped
Stitches.

You look at me through the halo of the last candle
and tell me love is an ill wind
that has no turning, a road that blows no good.

But I am here to remind you,
as our shadows tremble on the walls,
that love is the early bird who is better late than never.

Billy Collins.