Billy Collins: Все стихи поэта

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Litany

You are the bread and the knife,

The crystal goblet and the wine...

-Jacques Crickillon

You are the bread and the knife,

the crystal goblet and the wine.

You are the dew on the morning grass

and the burning wheel of the sun.

Billy Collins

Consolation

How agreeable it is not to be touring Italy this summer,

wandering her cities and ascending her torrid hilltowns.

How much better to cruise these local, familiar streets,

fully grasping the meaning of every roadsign and billboard

and all the sudden hand gestures of my compatriots.

There are no abbeys here, no crumbling frescoes or famous

domes and there is no need to memorize a succession

Billy Collins

Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes

First, her tippet made of tulle,

easily lifted off her shoulders and laid

on the back of a wooden chair.

And her bonnet,

the bow undone with a light forward pull.

Then the long white dress, a more

Billy Collins

Pinup

The murkiness of the local garage is not so dense

that you cannot make out the calendar of pinup

drawings on the wall above a bench of tools.

Your ears are ringing with the sound of

the mechanic hammering on your exhaust pipe,

and as you look closer you notice that this month's

is not the one pushing the lawn mower, wearing

a straw hat and very short blue shorts,

Billy Collins

Marginalia

Sometimes the notes are ferocious,

skirmishes against the author

raging along the borders of every page

in tiny black script.

If I could just get my hands on you,

Kierkegaard, or Conor Cruise O’Brien,

they seem to say,

I would bolt the door and beat some logic into your head.

Billy Collins

Candle Hat

In most self-portraits it is the face that dominates:

Cezanne is a pair of eyes swimming in brushstrokes,

Van Gogh stares out of a halo of swirling darkness,

Rembrant looks relieved as if he were taking a breather

from painting The Blinding of Sampson.

But in this one Goya stands well back from the mirror

and is seen posed in the clutter of his studio

Billy Collins

The Trouble with Poetry

The Trouble with Poetry: A Poem of Explanation

Billy Collins

The trouble with poetry, I realized

as I walked along a beach one night --

cold Florida sand under my bare feet,

a show of stars in the sky --

the trouble with poetry is

that it encourages the writing of more poetry,

Billy Collins

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.

He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark

that he barks every time they leave the house.

They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.

I close all the windows in the house

and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast

Billy Collins

Fishing on the Susquehanna in July

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna

or on any river for that matter

to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month

have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure--

of fishing on the Susquehanna.

Billy Collins

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

Billy Collins