Share a Verse Today



Today is Poem in Your Pocket Day, part of National Poetry Month. The idea is pretty straightforward: Carry a poem in your pocket in order to share it with friends, co-workers and others you meet throughout the day. Spread a little extra beauty in the world.

Below is the poem printed in Thursday’s edition, by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. But we also want to know. Who are your favorite poets, what are your favorite poems? Leave a comment and fill us in. Share the poem in your pocket with all of us today.

Introduction to Poetry
by 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.

 

Introduction to Poetry
by 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.