Picnic, lightning / Billy Collins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Collins, Billy

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Pitt poetry series

Language:

English

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

103 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [1998]

Summary:

Billy Collins -- winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, veteran of a one-hour Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross, and a guest on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion -- arrives at Random House with the poetic equivalent of a Greatest Hits album, seasoned with some wonderful new numbers. Ranging from a lament over "Forgetfulness" -- "Whatever it is you are struggling to remember/it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, /not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen" -- to a love poem that starts with weighing a dog, to a definitive "Life of Riley" ("He never had a job, a family or a sore throat"), Billy Collins' poems often seem modest and homespun, until the reader finds himself suddenly dissolving into laughter or tears. As for his popularity, a recent piece in Publishers Weekly, which ran before his three-book deal with Random House was made public, will perhaps be more convincing than any editor trying to flog a book in a fact sheet could be: "In February alone, three of Collins' collections sold nearly 8000 copies.... Fresh Air/Terry Gross recently rebroadcast an hour-long interview with Collins; the following day Picnic, Lightning briefly hit #59 in Amazon.com's bestseller rankings." Billy Collins is a dynamic and popular reader. He makes between thirty and forty appearances a year. His arrival at a prominent trade publishing house will ensure an even wider audience for his poetry and will capitalize on his increasing popularity. Household name may not be too much to ask for.

Contents:

A Portrait of the Reader with a Bowl of Cereal 3

Fishing on the Susquehanna in July 7

To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years from Now 9

I Chop Some Parsley While Listening to Art Blakey's Version of "Three Blind Mice" 10

Afternoon with Irish Cows 12

Marginalia 14

What I Learned Today 17

Journal 20

Some Days 22

Silence 23

Picnic, Lightning 24

In the Room of a Thousand Miles 29

Morning 31

Bonsai 32

Splitting Wood 34

Shoveling Snow with Buddha 37

I Go Back to the House for a Book 39

After the Storm 41

Snow 44

Moon 46

Looking West 48

The Much I Do Remember 49

Japan 51

Victoria's Secret 55

Musee des Beaux Art Revisited 59

Lines Composed Over Three Thousand Miles from Tintern Abbey 61

Paradelle for Susan 64

Duck/Rabbit 65

Egypt 66

Home Again 68

Lines Lost Among Trees 70

The Many Faces of Jazz 72

Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes 74

The Night House 79

The Death of the Hat 81

The List of Ancient Pastimes 83

Passengers 85

Serpentine 87

Reincarnation and You 89

Jazz and Nature 91

And His Sextet 94

Where I Live 96

My Life 98

Aristotle 100.

ISBN:

0822940663

0822956705

OCLC:

37792423