Billy Collins!

In our Language Arts class our teacher gave us two full days of class and told us to "create or learn something". I studied Billy Collins' poetry. He was the US Poet Laureate 2001-2003 and the New York state Poet Laureate from 2004-2006. This is an excerpt from my project.


Lately I have found myself obsessed with Billy Collins’; addicted to the feeling of discovery and inspiration that forms after reading one of his poems. When I read one of his poems I feel as though I am looking into a mirror, the reflection of my mind. After further examination, I suddenly realize there is a thought or memory that has always been there, just never acknowledged. It is like he’s penning the extraneous strings of my thoughts into something tangible. Or perhaps his poems are like the water and sunlight for the of seeds of musings in my head, which germinate in response to the poem. Sometimes his poems seem rather bizarre and other-worldly, but then again, my thoughts don’t really ever fit together like puzzle pieces. His poems are so profound, and seem to inspire that indescribable expanding feeling in one’s chest.

Copyright 2011 Abigail Chapman