Water, Water, Billy Collins
Water, Water, Billy Collins
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Water, Water
Poems

Author: Billy Collins

Narrator: Billy Collins

Unabridged: 1 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/19/2024

Categories: Fiction, Poetry


Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the former Poet Laureate of the United States and New York Times bestselling author of Aimless Love comes a wondrous new collection of poems focused on the joys and mysteries of daily life.

“Among the best poems that [Billy] Collins has ever written.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR

“Witty, wry and tender when it hurts, Water, Water is a pleasure to read and easy to give.”—The Washington Post

“Collins remains the most companionable of poetic companions.”—The New York Times

One of People’s Best New Books

In this collection of sixty new poems, Billy Collins writes about the beauties and ironies of everyday experience. A poem is best, he feels, when it begins in clarity but ends with a whiff of mystery.

In Water, Water, Collins combines his vigilant attention and respect for the peripheral to create moments of delight. Common and uncommon events are captured here with equal fascination, be it a cat leaning to drink from a swimming pool, a nurse calling a name in a waiting room, or an astronaut reciting Emily Dickinson from outer space. With his trademark lyrical informality, Collins asks us to slow down and glimpse the elevated in the ordinary, the odd in the familiar. It’s no surprise that The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal both call Collins one of America’s favorite poets.

The Monet Conundrum

Is every one of these poems
different from the others
he asked himself,
as the rain quieted down,

or are they all the same poem,
haystack after haystack
at different times of day,
different shadows and shades of hay?

About Billy Collins

Billy Collins served two terms as the Poet Laureate of the United States, in 2001 to 2003, and then as the New York State Poet for 2004 through 2006. He is the author of several collections of poetry. He has won the Mark Twain Award for Humor in Poetry, the Norman Mailer Prize for Poetry, the Levinson Prize, and the Oscar Blumenthal Prize and been named Poetry magazine’s Poet of the Year and a New York Public Library Literary Lion, among many other awards and honors. He is a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the senior distinguished fellow of the Winter Park Institute in Florida.


Reviews

Goodreads review by s.penkevich on January 08, 2025

Through prose both charming and witty, Billy Collins has certainly established himself as a household name in poetry. Collins, now 83, has a long legacy of literary merit as a poet, a former poet laureate, and a college professor and still turns out a collection of poetry every few years. To this da......more

Goodreads review by Richard on May 31, 2024

For those familiar with poet Billy Collins, "Water, Water" will be like welcoming back a trusted and adored companion. The former United States Poet Laureate, Collins is a master at writing in ways that are both universal and intimate, familiar yet mysterious. This is very much alive in "Water, Wate......more

Goodreads review by Wendy on November 25, 2024

It's word sorcery. I just can't even.......more

Goodreads review by Timothy on April 28, 2025

Reading these poems made me want to be a better person and husband, which is perhaps too much to ask of a book or of myself at this age, especially since I scolded my husband this morning for not helping me put the screens in the windows, but then I thought of these poems, and I apologized for scold......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on December 27, 2024

As good as ever.......more


Quotes

“Witty, wry and tender when it hurts, Water, Water is a pleasure to read and easy to give.”—The Washington Post

“Poems that center the beauty in the mundane . . . [Collins’s] approachable verses are a delightful balm.”—People

“These poems offer variations on the theme of finding wonder in everyday things. They shimmer with wry revelation, a bright tonic in a fading year.”—Christian Science Monitor

“Among the best poems that Collins has ever written.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR

“Every page of this delightfully readable collection of poems by a former U.S. poet laureate will remind you of the pleasures of the simple act of observation, putting ordinary moments and common sights into words. Collins’s humor, kindness, and unassuming intelligence infuse every subject: a lost dog, a flash of memory, a bowl of cereal and berries, a wife in her yellow robe. A perfect topper for your bedside stack.”—Good Housekeeping