Bill Collins and His Poem
Willia
m James Collins was born on March 22, 1941. He is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida. Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004-2006. Billy Collins has been called ‘The most popular poet in America’ by the New York Times. He ranked #36 in the top 500 poets. The following is one of his poems.
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 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
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,
and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.
When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton
while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.
The Showers of Blessings 
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Well done
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We study one poet per class. I studies more since this post. I enjoy it. Thank you for the comment!
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Hahaha. Interesting poem. Thanks for sharing information about this personality with us. Can quite relate with the barking dog phenomenon late at night. Nuisance. 😉
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He has many poems with dogs in them. He also have composers popping in and out. I like his imagination!
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Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, I found it intriguing that he made it seem like the dog was actually part of some orchestra. I guess it’s his way of exaggerating the noise. As if the dog was part of the band playing the music, thus leading to new music. Haha. Yeah, true. Lovely imagination.
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I’m going to collect his poetry books!
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It reminds me of the barking dogs that woke me up every night in Costa Rica at 1:30 am. Unfortunately, I had no Beethoven to get me through it!
Cute poem. I like imagining the dog as an oboist, or perhaps playing the bassoon!
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He is fun. The music or composers just pop up in his poem when least expected!
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Oh! I love Billy Collins’s work. He has a couple of fun TED talks, have you seen them? http://www.ted.com/talks/billy_collins_two_poems_about_what_dogs_think_probably AND https://www.ted.com/talks/billy_collins_everyday_moments_caught_in_time
and I especially love his poem “Introduction to Poetry” here – https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/introduction-to-poetry/
Thank you for reminding me, Miriam! May be an idea for a future blog post for me! 🙂
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No, the last poetry class, we were assigned to read Bill Collins poem. Yes, someone read “Introduction to Poetry.” I read “The Art of Drowning.” He wrote quite a few ‘dod’ poem, and many funny ones too!
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Ah! how is your poetry class coming along? Still good!
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Yes, tomorrow we read from Edwin Markham. We read from famous poets the first hour, then read our own or any choice the second hour. They are a whole bunch fun retired people. Many of them have their poetry in books. One person’s mom made her memorized one poem a week since four year-old. Another person has been writing for years. She is 84 and still writing new poem!
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They print a class poetry book every year. They will be printing the next one soon, and ask me to submit some to be included in the book!
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