Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/04/07/A_Selection_of_Poems_by_Billy_Collins
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads his poem, “The Lanyard.”
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Poet Billy Collins is a unique literary figure - a widely read contemporary poet. The former US Poet Laureate and New York State Poet has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation, though his most dramatic honors come from a wide and appreciative readership. Collins’s poetry collections, including The Trouble With Poetry and Other Poems, Nine Horses, Sailing Alone Around the Room, and Picnic, Lightening, have broken records for poetry sales. His writing is marked by inventiveness beyond traditional poetry forms with ironic twists and lyrical turns of phrase that resonate powerfully. An advocate for integrating poetry into everyday life, Collins compiled the anthologies Poetry 180 and 180 More with poems for every day of a typical school year. Billy Collins has been a professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York since 1968 - City Arts & Lectures
Billy Collins is the author of several books of poetry and two anthologies of contemporary poetry, including The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems; The Arts of Drowning, which was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall prize; and Questions About Angels, which won the National Poetry Series in 1990. He is also a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College (CUNY). Collins served as US Poet Laureate (2001-2003) and as New York State Poet Laureate (2004-2006). Collins’ poetry has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Harper’s, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among many other journals and periodicals. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has won several awards and prizes.
Duration : 0:3:56
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
For mothers, a …
For mothers, a lanyard IS enoughthe small gifts are the sweetest ones.
What a wonderful, poignant poem.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I’ve got it so bad, …
I’ve got it so bad, that I’m going up into my mom’s attic today to look for lanyards I made at Girl Scout camp in 1970…..oh well, why not?
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Word.
Word.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I can’t hear this …
I can’t hear this enough…I’m sending it to my mother and to all my friends for Mother’s Day…it is extraordinary.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I love this poem.
I love this poem.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
That was just …
That was just brilliant………. and Billy I think it did make you even
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
How is this funny.. …
How is this funny…?
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
As I have read this …
As I have read this poem many times I have never found it to be comical. Although it is funny in the correct light, I see it as one of the greatest tributes and truths of motherhood.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I love this poem. …
I love this poem. He deserved the Mark Twain award for humor. Absolutely brilliant! It’s spot on in regards to the love a mother has for her child.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
flawless. wow. …
flawless. wow. just saw this on pbs and had to find it here. makes me cry. just wonderful. i hear this and know i will never really be a poet. oh well. well done, billy collins, thanks for this post. thanks for such a poem.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
i dunno which’s …
i dunno which’s more kickass.
lanyards…
or billy collins.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I love Billy …
I love Billy Collins.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Every time I read …
Every time I read one of Collins’ poems, I hear his voice as it is here.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I LOVE SEX WHO ELSE …
I LOVE SEX WHO ELSE IS WITH ME?
add me as a friend on M.S.N Br
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
uh..im going to …
uh..im going to kill my co-worker glen for making me see this. Im gonna take this lanyard and choke him..EFF YOU GLEN!!!! EFF YOU!!!!
May 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
thats now one of my …
thats now one of my favorites