Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins Debuts Water, Water: Poems
Please join Wilton Library for the literary event of the season on Sunday, November 24, when Billy Collins, the former Poet Laureate of the United States will introduce Water, Water: Poems, a wondrous new collection focused on the joys and mysteries of daily life. And on our stage for the first time - Collins meets Brubeck - where poetry and jazz come together in a very special pairing!
In this collection of 60 new poems, Billy Collins writes about the beauties and ironies of everyday experience. A poem is best, he feels, when it begins in clarity but ends with a whiff of mystery.
In Water, Water, Collins combines his vigilant attention and respect for the peripheral to create moments of delight. Common and uncommon events are captured here with equal fascination, be it a cat leaning to drink from a swimming pool, a nurse calling a name in a waiting room, or an astronaut reciting Emily Dickinson from outer space. With his trademark lyrical informality, Collins asks us to slow down and 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.
Billy Collins is an American phenomenon. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal. His work has appeared in a variety of periodicals including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The American Scholar, he is a Guggenheim fellow and a New York Public Library “Literary Lion.” His last three collections of poems have broken sales records for poetry. His readings are usually standing room only, and his audience – enhanced tremendously by his appearances on National Public Radio – includes people of all backgrounds and age groups. The poems themselves best explain this phenomenon. The typical Collins poem opens on a clear and hospitable note but soon takes an unexpected turn; poems that begin in irony may end in a moment of lyric surprise. No wonder Collins sees his poetry as “a form of travel writing” and considers humor “a door into the serious.” It is a door that many thousands of readers have opened with amazement and delight.
Billy Collins has published twelve collections of poetry. His books Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems, The Rain in Portugal, Whale Day And Other Poems, and Musical Tables were New York Times bestsellers. A former Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York, Collins served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003 and as New York State Poet from 2004 to 2006. In 2016 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Elm Street Books will be selling copies of Water, Water: Poems which Billy Collins will sign after the program.
Media sponsor for Wilton Library Author Talks is GOOD Morning Wilton.
Registration required.