It's an important social duty to spread the word of English to people whose livelihoods depend on knowing the language. Billy Collins dependdutyenglish Change image and share on social
I write with a Uni-Ball Onyx Micropoint on nine-by-seven bound notebooks made by a Canadian company called Blueline. After I do a few drafts, I type up the poem on a Macintosh G3 and then send it out the door. Billy Collins ballbindblueline share on social
One of the ridiculous aspects of being a poet is the huge gulf between how seriously we take ourselves and how generally we are ignored by everybody else. Billy Collins aspectgenerallygulf Change image and share on social
The life of Edward Estlin Cummings began with a childhood in Cambridge, Mass., that he described as happy, but he struggled in both his artistic and romantic exploits against the piousness of his father, an esteemed Harvard professor. Billy Collins artisticbegincambridge share on social
My poems tend to have rhetorical structures; what I mean by that is they tend to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There tends to be an opening, as if you were reading the opening chapter of a novel. They sound like I'm initiating something, or I'm making a move. Billy Collins beginchapterend share on social
When I was a young man, I understood that poetry was two things - it was difficult to understand, but you could understand that the poet was miserable. So for a while there, I wrote poems that were hard to understand, even by me, but gave off whiffs of misery. Billy Collins difficultgivehard share on social
Some honor Cummings as the granddaddy of all American innovators in poetry and ascribe to him a diverse progeny that includes virtually any poet who considers the page a field and allows silence to be part of poetry's expressiveness. Billy Collins americanascribeconsider share on social
I have a stack of those plastic card hotel room keys that I picked up on this latest book tour. It's about a yard tall. Ah yes, a stack of lonely nights. Billy Collins bookcardhotel Change image and share on social
The whole world of publishing is moving to electronic, but when you put a poem on a screen and you increase the type size, the shape of a poem changes. Billy Collins electronicincreasemove Change image and share on social
I learned snails don't have ears. They live in silence. They go slowly. Slowly, slowly in silence. Billy Collins earlearnlive Change image and share on social
