Aimless Love: New And Selected Poems (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
I have never really liked a book on poetry before, until now. Not only do I like this collection, I absolutely love it! I want to read it all over again, and out loud. My copy is only an ebook, and I'd love to own it in print someday, so that I can bring it with me anywhere, and read it to any friend who's willing to hear some of the poems in it.Billy Collins is now my favorite poet. Come to think of it, I never really had a favorite poet before, because before I read Collins I have never really appreciated poetry that much. Only a third of this book is new work; the remainder is a collected greatest hits of his twenty-first century editions: Nine Horses, Horoscopes for the Dead, The Trouble With Poetry, etc.As always, Collins’ poems delight, amuse, and entertain. Sometimes they can be moving--as in the final poem, “The Names,” which commemorates the dead of September 11th. But mostly he eschews heavier subjects and themes for lighter fare like doing Michael Caine impressions, parodying the Great American Novel in verse, and best of all suffering a splitting hangover while kids play Marco Polo in a swimming pool. Wit and wordplay are where Collins excels.Two highlights would be “To My Favorite 17-Year-Old High School Girl” and “Genesis,” which turns allusion into loveliness.The one misstep: “Irish Poetry,” which I can’t tell if it mocks, celebrates, or merely imitates Seamus Heaney. The result is not flattery, but a clunker.
What do You think about Aimless Love: New And Selected Poems (2013)?
The art of simplicity is not lost on this man-- a must read
—vaya
Clever, funny, just a hint of darkness. Good stuff!
—Ytyt
