Well, he has some good stuff. It isn't always "light verse," but much if not most of it is in that direction. Among a certain couple of older generations who also still read POETRY Magazine types, he is definitely one of THE contemporary poets. Of course Rattle Magazine's Katie Dozier absolutely loves him. And he was the US Poet Laureate in the early 2000s. He sometimes has had an odd hostility toward truly formal verse, especially for a lover of the tradition and also light verse, as he is. A.M. Juster spent a whole book sort of parodying that, 'The Billy Collins Experience.' But I think that is more of Collins's "academic" side. I'd say listen to The Poetry Space podcast episode on him and see what you think! I think by far his best book (and this one is worth getting I think) is 'The Apple that Astonished Paris' from 1988.
This is great info and I will follow this advice. He never sounded like my kind of poet but sometimes poets are more interesting than what people say about them.
Thanks for the shout out and this great post! 💜
Thank you for reading, and thank you for your constantly, consistently good podcast and publication!
Aw, how kind!
This is huge fun. I've never read Billy C. Should I?
Well, he has some good stuff. It isn't always "light verse," but much if not most of it is in that direction. Among a certain couple of older generations who also still read POETRY Magazine types, he is definitely one of THE contemporary poets. Of course Rattle Magazine's Katie Dozier absolutely loves him. And he was the US Poet Laureate in the early 2000s. He sometimes has had an odd hostility toward truly formal verse, especially for a lover of the tradition and also light verse, as he is. A.M. Juster spent a whole book sort of parodying that, 'The Billy Collins Experience.' But I think that is more of Collins's "academic" side. I'd say listen to The Poetry Space podcast episode on him and see what you think! I think by far his best book (and this one is worth getting I think) is 'The Apple that Astonished Paris' from 1988.
This is great info and I will follow this advice. He never sounded like my kind of poet but sometimes poets are more interesting than what people say about them.