Billy Collins

Lizzie gets even

I’ve been posting submissions in the order in which I received them, which led to the mistiming of today’s entry of Billy Collins’ tribute to his mother, “The Lanyard.” Should have been last week, before Mother’s Day. That said, (said the mother), Hallmark doesn’t have a monopoly on appropriate days to thank one’s mother.   Today’s […]

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Bowls, not bowels; poems, not tweets

First, an apology to anyone eating when they read my last post.  Several people told me they mis-read “Bloody Bowls” as “Bloody Bowels.”  I missed that somehow when I was coming up with a title.  Now Bloody Bowels is all I see. Apologies to Laura Kasischke as well.  No poet would want her poem associated […]

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Tom Foolery’s birthday

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s the first day of National Poetry Month, a celebration most people observe by deleting Poem-a-Day emails.   Today is also the most important secular holiday of the year: April Fool’s Day.   And I am Marie of Romania, as Dorothy Parker would say.   Actually I’m as serious as a person […]

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Billy Collins, please save the baby!

  Baby Listening by Billy Collins According to the guest information directory, baby listening is a service offered by this seaside hotel.   Baby listening—not a baby who happens to be listening, as I thought when I first checked in.   Leave the receiver off the hook the directory advises, and your infant can be […]

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