tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4628733312371339602.post3967624883601094850..comments2024-03-15T02:56:07.804-03:00Comments on Slanted: I Know a GuyMBChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02860359505710765392noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4628733312371339602.post-60303637754110866442008-02-20T15:33:00.000-04:002008-02-20T15:33:00.000-04:00Billy Collins is one of my favorites. Love his "T...Billy Collins is one of my favorites. Love his "The Death of the Hat" which I just posted. Your blog is great.Tess Kincaidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04889725786678984293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4628733312371339602.post-7885936493041121382008-02-20T14:44:00.000-04:002008-02-20T14:44:00.000-04:00I love Donald Davis! I think my favorite story of ...I love Donald Davis! I think my favorite story of his is the one where he puts the peas he doesn't want to eat in the hollow leg of his table.... We don't WASTE FOOD! :)Alyssa Rockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17705164408001258447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4628733312371339602.post-70823303783946232002008-02-20T14:02:00.000-04:002008-02-20T14:02:00.000-04:00Are you in Utah? Did you know Billy Collins will ...Are you in Utah? Did you know Billy Collins will be at BYU on Feb. 29?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4628733312371339602.post-35686133116075455862008-02-20T12:28:00.000-04:002008-02-20T12:28:00.000-04:00I want to waterski across the surface of a poem. I...I want to waterski across the surface of a poem. I wish I could be doing that instead of working.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4628733312371339602.post-78707563342021120542008-02-20T12:18:00.000-04:002008-02-20T12:18:00.000-04:00Chou--I'd like to hang out with Annie Dillard, too...Chou--I'd like to hang out with Annie Dillard, too, although I've still never made it through <I>The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek</I>. I I love <I>An American Childhood</I>, though.<BR/><BR/>Mom--That's my favorite line, too.<BR/><BR/>Anonymous--I <I>have</I> read a number of Billy's books, but not <I>She Was Just Seventeen</I>. I buy the poetry collection in our library, and Billy Collins is one of the only contemporary poets whose books check out. I make sure we have other great poets, but he's definitely a favorite in our community--understandably so.<BR/><BR/>Yankee Girl--Fascinating. Maybe Tom Brokaw was just visiting someone in rehab. I find it most interesting that he was looking for his own book.MBChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02860359505710765392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4628733312371339602.post-15769944243508238002008-02-20T11:35:00.000-04:002008-02-20T11:35:00.000-04:00I'm a new ban of Billy Collins--thanks. Isn't Dona...I'm a new ban of Billy Collins--thanks. Isn't Donald Davis the best. Such a great teller and still the nicest person. I'm seeing him tonight.<BR/><BR/>p.s. if you are looking to meet any famous rehab individuals hit Borders Books in Orem on a Sunday. (That's the day that the rehab place up at Sundance frees all the celebs) My brother-in-law sees and sometimes meets these people while working. Recently he spent time helping Tom Brokaw look for some books (including his own). Not sure if Tom is in rehab, though--but then why else would he be in Orem, Utah?Courtneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04986527567693226393noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4628733312371339602.post-89856005209519065792008-02-20T10:02:00.000-04:002008-02-20T10:02:00.000-04:00Those Poetry 180 books are collections of others' ...Those Poetry 180 books are collections of others' work. Have you read any of Billy's books? I think he has eight or nine out. One of them is a book of haiku called She Was Just Seventeen. It's a beautifully printed and bound art book, so it costs more than usual-- about $40. But the others are all out in softcover, so they're not expensive. <BR/><BR/>Try this poem out on your mother. <BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>The Lanyard<BR/><BR/>Billy Collins<BR/><BR/>The other day I was ricocheting slowly<BR/>off the blue walls of this room,<BR/>moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,<BR/>from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,<BR/>when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary<BR/>where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.<BR/><BR/>No cookie nibbled by a French novelist<BR/>could send one into the past more suddenly—<BR/>a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp<BR/>by a deep Adirondack lake<BR/>learning how to braid long thin plastic strips<BR/>into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.<BR/><BR/>I had never seen anyone use a lanyard<BR/>or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,<BR/>but that did not keep me from crossing<BR/>strand over strand again and again<BR/>until I had made a boxy<BR/>red and white lanyard for my mother.<BR/><BR/>She gave me life and milk from her breasts,<BR/>and I gave her a lanyard.<BR/>She nursed me in many a sick room,<BR/>lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,<BR/>laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,<BR/>and then led me out into the airy light<BR/><BR/>and taught me to walk and swim,<BR/>and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.<BR/>Here are thousands of meals, she said,<BR/>and here is clothing and a good education.<BR/>And here is your lanyard, I replied,<BR/>which I made with a little help from a counselor.<BR/><BR/>Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,<BR/>strong legs, bones and teeth,<BR/>and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,<BR/>and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.<BR/>And here, I wish to say to her now,<BR/>is a smaller gift—not the worn truth<BR/><BR/>that you can never repay your mother,<BR/>but the rueful admission that when she took<BR/>the two-tone lanyard from my hand,<BR/>I was as sure as a boy could be<BR/>that this useless, worthless thing I wove<BR/>out of boredom would be enough to make us even.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4628733312371339602.post-7428615638848162332008-02-20T09:42:00.000-04:002008-02-20T09:42:00.000-04:00I love "tie the poem to a chair with rope and tort...I love "tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confessions out of it". That's what we often do. MomAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4628733312371339602.post-90393010922887315342008-02-20T01:23:00.000-04:002008-02-20T01:23:00.000-04:00I want him to add Annie Dillard to my version of t...I want him to add Annie Dillard to my version of the list. I wonder what she would write me if I cooked for her. I like the poem you put up--it allows me to sit back and enjoy watching the poem romp as opposed to attempting to parse the subtle nuances of albatrosses and such.Chouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11711969146276630261noreply@blogger.com