Billy Collins is one of favorite contemporary poets.  The author the ‘The Lanyard’ (if you don’t know this poem, you must read it!), ‘Undressing Emily Dickinson’, and ‘Boats Upon the Charles’ among dozens of other wonderful works, he is much honored as a former Poet Laureate and perhaps the best-selling poet in America.

This book represents a departure for him—an exploration of the small poem.  Having discovered that some of his favorite poets (Snyder, Ryan, Padgett, Simic, Ammons) have published such very short works, he views the genre as a ‘drastic example of poetry’s way of squeezing large content into tight spaces…. a flash, a gesture, a gambit without the game that follows.  There’s no room for landscape here, or easeful reflection, but there is the opportunity for humor and poignancy.”  Eschewing the traditional haiku’s 17 syllables, he ‘started to make his own small contribution to the genre.”

While I occasionally smiled or even chuckled at his clever wordplay, I overall was disappointed.  Here’s one of our outstanding poets spending his time on trivia.  It’s like Picasso painting a garage or Beethoven writing a new version of Happy Birthday.  On the other hand, there were some jewels among these little verses.  Here’s one entitled ‘Carbon Dating’:  “He tried it once/as a last resort/but most of the women/were a million years old“ or ‘Headstone’:  “If the dates show/the husband died/shortly after the wife—/first Gladys then Harry/ Betty followed by Tom—/the cause is often/gradual starvation/and not a broken heart.”

You get the idea—-clever plays on words in the hands of a masterful word arranger.  A good book to keep on the guest room nightstand or in the loo for those few moments that won’t sustain Beowulf or The Iliad, but are just right for ‘Musical Tables’.