Thursday, September 2, 2010

Favorite Things Friday - Poetry by Billy Collins

Last week, Mrs. Pyjamas at Quilting in My Pyjamas had the brilliant idea to start a linky party called "Favourite Things Friday."  I told her I was in!  Then, quite honestly, I kind of forgot about it, but thanks to the blundering of Blogger which made her draft show up briefly yesterday in Google Reader, my memory was jogged.  See, Mrs. P.?  There is a reason for everything!



So I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins.  Now, I know poetry isn't everyone's thing, but before you roll your eyes and click on to the next link, I ask you to consider giving these two poems a listen.  They're read here by Billy Collins himself, U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003, and winner of the Poetry Foundation's Mark Twain Prize for Humor in Poetry.

That's right, this guy is funny.  I absolutely adore the dry humor that pervades his work. 

My sister introduced me to Billy Collins—not literally, of course, but had I gone along with her to his reading in Milwaukee a few years back, I might have had a great story about knocking a few back with him and a group of others at a pub afterwards, as she does.  I had no idea who he was then, but was very happy to soon thereafter become acquainted with his work.  

And now it's your chance to hear a couple of his poems, if you haven't already.  Enjoy!





If you'd like to read either of these instead of watch the videos, here is the link to Litany, and here is The Lanyard.

9 comments:

Sarcastic Quilter said...

Okay, I enjoyed those greatly! Thank you for sharing. I'll be looking him up a little more.

Shay said...

What a fabulous favourite thing.

I listened to both poems. You have to listen to the words to get his dry wit and I really enjoyed it.

P- thanks so much for sharing a very unique favourite thing. I loved it.

Larri said...

Those were a fun listen! I think these are much better appreciated when listening than simply reading. I don't think I would have picked up on all the dry humor if not given the opportunity to hear the poet read them himself. Thanks for sharing. Happy Friday! :o)

SueWis said...

Love them both, but The Lanyard brought tears. Thanks for sharing.

Michelle said...

Those poems were just so clever, funny, and yet also true. I especially enjoyed The Lanyard.

Thanks for sharing this favorite thing.

Elizabeth said...

P., your post was one of the first I checked out, but it was the middle of the night here and I didn't want to disturb anyone. So, I still haven't listened to the poetry, but I wanted to let you know that I loved finding this favorite thing out about you and I'm coming back to listen to the poetry (really, I will). I got sucked into and completely obsessed with a project the last couple of days and now we have family stuff this weekend, but I didn't want you to think I was one of those linky people who post and then don't go check out the other links. It is at the top of my list of things to do when we finish with all the family stuff. I'll comment after I've listened and tell you what I think.

xo -E

seabreezequilts said...

Ha loved it, nothing like dry whit to get you thinking.

GaAm said...

This guy is awesome! I'm glad you got to hear him.

Elizabeth said...

P., I'm finally back. To be completely honest, poetry is not my cup of tea. I just don't quite get the language of most of it. But I really did enjoy checking out something new and finding out that this is something that you like.

xo -E