And this one targets my readerly heart as if its poetic arrow is aimed to pierce me, only me. Because, well, it is. That's how poetry works. That's how Billy Collins works. That's how reading works. ❤️
Oh, how I love to read. Some of the books and writers who have been my sisters, brothers, kindred spirits, or heralds of surprise and fascination thus far in 2026 include:
Memorial Days, Geraldine Brooks
The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff
The Separation of Church and Hate, John Fugelsang
The Berry Pickers, Amanda Peters
The Road to Tender Hearts, Annie Hartnett
Flashlight, Susan Choi
Homeschooled, Stefan Merrill Block
As Collins says in the final line of this poem, books and I are on "a road we will always be traveling together."
Who are you traveling with right now? What have you read in the last month?
Dear Reader
by Billy Collins
Baudelaire considers you his brother,
and Fielding calls out to you every few paragraphs
as if to make sure you have not closed the book,
and now I am summoning you up again,
attentive ghost, dark silent figure standing
in the doorway of these words.
Pope welcomes you into the glow of his study,
takes down a leather-bound Ovid to show you.
Tennyson lifts the latch to a moated garden,
and with Yeats you lean against a broken pear tree,
the day hooded by low clouds.
But now you are here with me,
composed in the open field of this page,
Baudelaire considers you his brother,
and Fielding calls out to you every few paragraphs
as if to make sure you have not closed the book,
and now I am summoning you up again,
attentive ghost, dark silent figure standing
in the doorway of these words.
Pope welcomes you into the glow of his study,
takes down a leather-bound Ovid to show you.
Tennyson lifts the latch to a moated garden,
and with Yeats you lean against a broken pear tree,
the day hooded by low clouds.
But now you are here with me,
composed in the open field of this page,
....
(Read the rest here, at The Poetry Foundation.)
~~~~~~~~~~
Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone is hosting the Poetry Friday round-up today.
3 comments:
"a road we will always be traveling together." YES! Thank you for this poem, Karen. I did need to read it, too. One of my favorite books of the year so far has been The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O'Farrell.
Karen, thank you for the recommendations and for Billy! Sorry I had to delete my prior comment (not sure if you can see it behind the scenes, but as soon as I hit enter, I thought – that could have a double entendre!).
Post a Comment