(b. 1941– )
U.S. poet and professor“I would rather see words out on their own, away
from their families and the warehouse of Roget,
wandering the world where they sometimes fall
in love with a completely different word.
Surely, you have seen pairs of them standing forever
next to each other on the same line inside a poem,
a small chapel where weddings like these,
between perfect strangers, can take place.”
—Billy Collins, excerpt from his poem “Thesaurus”
more infomedium: Poetry
“Usually I try to create a hospitable tone at the beginning of a poem. Stepping from the title to the first lines is like stepping into a canoe. A lot of things can go wrong.”
more infosource: “On Literary Bridge, Poet Hits a Roadblock,” by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, December 19, 1999.
category: creative process, poetry
medium: newspaper article
via: The Writer's Almanac
Billy Collins