Currently reading
Almost No Memory
Selected Poems
The Tiger's Wife
Charles Dickens (Penguin Lives)
The Mansion of Happiness
Schriften
I enjoy Billy Collins, but despite the airplane on the cover of this, the poems in this collection never really took off for me. The poems lack turn, they seem often to lack purpose. And sometimes they go on too long. The title poem, for example, is amusing and there's the promise that the writer might tie it up and make a point, but it just keeps meandering. Here it is online: http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4940/prmID/1502The poem "Feedback" was just plain gratuitous, like the poet laughing at his own joke and not really minding that no one else will find it particularly funny.
My favorite poem was the opening one, "Grave," in which the poet visits his parents' grave and has a conversation with them, sort of: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/09/grave/307608/
I also liked the short, "My Hero," about a tortoise.
I appreciate Billy Collins - he has a sure touch, and I've have learned from reading his poems. I never looked to him for gravitas, but he seems yet lighter in this volume.
Two stars for "it was okay."
Beautiful cover, btw.