Introduction To Poetry
by BILLY COLLINS
Third Stanza
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
Forth Stanza
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
Fifth Stanza
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
Sixsth Stanza
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
Last Stanza
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Billy Colins
William James "Billy" Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida. Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library(1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004 through 2006. He is (in 2015) a teacher in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.
Introduction to Poetry - Billy Collins