Water, Water: Poems - Billy Collins

From the former United States Poet Laureate and New York Times bestselling author of Aimless Love, a wondrous new collection of poems focused on the joy and mystery of daily life. nA poet of plentitude, irony, and Augustan grace.--The New Yorker n nCollins remains the most companionable of poetic companions.--The New York Times n nIn these sixty new poems, Billy Collins mixes the straightforward and the elusive to write about the beauties and ironies of everyday experience. A poem is best, he feels, when it begins in clarity and ends with a whiff of mystery.

In Water, Water we learn how vigilance and a respect for the peripheral can result in moments of interest and delight. A cat leans to drink from a swimming pool; a nurse calls a name in a waiting room; an astronaut recites Emily Dickinson from outer space--such common and uncommon events are captured here with equal fascination. In a voice both conversational and melodic, hospitable and lyrical, informal but steadied by form, this poet asks us to tap the brakes and slow down so as to glimpse the elevated in the ordinary, the odd in the familiar.

It's no surprise that The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal both call Collins one of America's favorite poets. n nThe Monet Conundrum n nIs every one of these poems ndifferent from the others nhe asked himself, nas the rain quieted down, n nor are they all the same poem, nhaystack after haystack nat different times of day, ndifferent shadows and shades of hay?n