So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart. Billy Collins More Quotes by Billy Collins More Quotes From Billy Collins You, quote, find your voice, unquote, when you are able to invent this one character who resembles you, obviously, and probably is more like you than anyone else on earth, but is not the equivalent to you. Billy Collins voice earth character There's this pet phrase about writing that is bandied around particularly in workshops about "finding your own voice as a poet", which I suppose means that you come out from under the direct influence of other poets and have perhaps found a way to combine those influences so that it appears to be your own voice. Billy Collins voice writing mean Until recently, I thought 'occasional poetry' meant that you wrote only occasionally. Billy Collins occasional Form is any aspect of a poem that encourages it to stay whole and not drift off into chaos. Billy Collins chaos aspect form And strangely enoughthe only emotion I ever feel, is what the beaver must feel, as he bears each stick to his hidden construction, which creates the tranquil pond and gives the mallards somewhere to paddle, and the pair of swans a place to conceal their young Billy Collins swans ponds giving I see woefully obscure poetry as simply a kind of verbal rudeness. Billy Collins rudeness obscure kind Often people, when they're confronted with a poem, it's like someone who keep saying 'what is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of this?' And that dulls us to the other pleasures poetry offers. Billy Collins offers pleasure people I think my poems are slightly underrated by the word accessible. Billy Collins underrated thinking I could feel the day offering itself to me, and I wanted nothing more than to be in the moment-but which moment? Not that one, or that one, or that one. Billy Collins moments offering feels This love for everyday things, Billy Collins everyday-things eye natural But some nights, I must tell you, I go down there after everyone has fallen asleep. I swim back and forth in the echoing blackness. I sing a love song as well as I can, lost for a while in the home of the rain. Billy Collins rain home song I think my work has to do with a sense that we are attempting, all the time, to create a logical, rational path through the day. To the left and right there are an amazing set of distractions that we usually can't afford to follow. But the poet is willing to stop anywhere. Billy Collins distraction path thinking It's a good thing to get poetry off the shelves and more into public life. Billy Collins public-life shelves good-things When you get a poem [in a public place], it happens to you so suddenly that you don't have time to deploy your anti-poetry deflector shields that were installed in high school. Billy Collins motivation inspiration school One of these days I'm-a make me a book out of you. Billy Collins these-days book I knew that poets seemed to be miserable. Billy Collins miserable poet Vade Mecum I want the scissors to be sharp and the table perfectly level when you cut me out of my life and paste me in that book you always carry. Billy Collins levels cutting book I could look at you forever and never see the two of us together Billy Collins together forever two You know how sometimes you just have a memory of looking up and seeing a face looking over your crib and then remember nothing until tenth grade? - I have one of these early memories where I'm in the back of my parents' car, a place I loved to spend a lot of time as an only child, not having to fight with venomous siblings over the only toy. Billy Collins sibling memories children It's time to float on the waters of the night. Time to wrap my arms around this book and press it to my chest, life preserver in a seat of unremarkable men and women anonymous faces on the street, a hundred thousand unalphabitized things a million forgotten hours. Billy Collins men night book
