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More poems by Billy CollinsBilly Collins | Print this page.Print | Order a PoetryNotes Analysis of this poem.Analysis | View and Write CommentsComments (4)

Introduction To Poetry

Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light 
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Added: 29 Aug 2001 | Last Read: 22 Mar 2010 7:13 AM | Viewed: 21716 times

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URL: http://plagiarist.com/poetry/433/ | Viewed on 22 March 2010.
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