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: on September 10th, 2005 at 1:10 PM | Viewed: 10029 times | Comments (8)

Poet: Billy Collins
Poem: Introduction To Poetry
Volume: The Apple that Astonished Paris
Year: Published/Written in 1988

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