{"id":2100,"date":"2007-03-22T08:02:34","date_gmt":"2007-03-22T14:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/poems\/happy-birthday-billy-collins\/"},"modified":"2013-04-11T14:25:46","modified_gmt":"2013-04-11T20:25:46","slug":"happy-birthday-billy-collins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/poems\/happy-birthday-billy-collins\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, Billy Collins!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Writer’s Almanac notes that today is Billy Collins’ 66 birthday<\/a>. Time to re-read On Turning Ten<\/em><\/a> or The Country<\/em><\/a> (bottom of that page). Collins is one of my favorite poets — perhaps he and Frost share #2 and there is no #1 for me (though I could hardly imagine poets more different than Frost and Collins). <\/p>\n

Time to trot out my tribute to Collins:<\/p>\n

Billy<\/p>\n

It doesn’t seem the least bit odd
\nthat all the members of the orchestra
\nare dogs.
\nSome in tuxedos,
\nsome in black gowns,
\nsitting, waiting — good dogs! —
\nfor the conductor
\nto raise a long meaty bone.
\nSome clear their throats,
\nsome drool,
\nnone look away for a moment.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t seem the least bit odd
\nthat everyone in the audience
\nis in a tutu.
\nMen and women dressed for the
\nballet, though this is a concert,
\neach holding a pen and pad
\nplanning to pounce
\nto snatch some new idea.
\nAs if Beethoven for Dogs
\nweren’t enough.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t seem the least bit odd
\nin the end
\nwhen the conductor puts down his baton,
\nmost of the meat shaken off
\nto the delight of the First Chair.
\nHe turns and bows
\nand then I recognize him:
\nthe poet laureate,
\nthe old dog himself. mjh<\/span><\/p>\n

8\/13\/02<\/p>\n

PS: The WA includes a quote from Collins<\/a> mentioning sex. I can’t think of any poem by Collins about sex. Maybe that’s why the poem of the day isn’t by Collins but is about sex, sorta.<\/p>\n

PPS: Frost’s birthday is 3\/26\/1874<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Writer’s Almanac notes that today is Billy Collins’ 66 birthday. Time to re-read On Turning Ten or The Country (bottom of that page). Collins is one of my favorite poets — perhaps he and Frost share #2 and there is no #1 for me (though I could hardly imagine poets more different than Frost … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Billy Collins!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[94,76],"class_list":["post-2100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","tag-dogs","tag-poets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6090,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100\/revisions\/6090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}