Picnic, lightning - Collins, Billy (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998)
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
A portrait of the reader with a bowl of cereal -- - Fishing on the Susquehanna in July -- - To a stranger born in some distant country hundreds of years from now -- - I chop some parsley while listening to Art Blakey's version of "Three blind mice" -- - Afternoon with Irish cows -- - Marginalia -- - What I learned today -- - Journal -- - Some days -- - Silence -- - Picnic, lightning -- - In the room of a thousand miles -- - Morning -- - Bonsai -- - Splitting wood -- - Shoveling snow with Buddha -- - I go back to the house for a book -- - After the storm -- - Snow -- - Moon -- - Looking west -- - This much I do remember -- - Japan -- - Victoria's Secret -- - Musée des beaux arts revisited -- - Lines composed over three thousand miles from Tintern Abbey -- - Paradelle for Susan -- - Duck/rabbit -- - Egypt -- - Home again -- - Lines lost among trees -- - The many faces of jazz -- - Taking off Emily Dickinson's clothes -- - The night house -- - The death of the hat -- - The list of ancient pastimes -- - Passengers -- - Serpentine -- - Reincarnation and you -- - Jazz and nature -- - And his sextet -- - Where I live -- - My life -- - Aristotle
Billy Collins -- winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, veteran of a one-hour Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross, and a guest on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion -- arrives at Random House with the poetic equivalent of a Greatest Hits album, seasoned with some wonderful new numbers. Ranging from a lament over "Forgetfulness"--"Whatever it is you are struggling to remember/it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, /not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen"--to a love poem that starts with weighing a dog, to a definitive "Life of Riley" ("He never had a job, a family or a sore throat"), Billy Collins' poems often seem modest and homespun, until the reader finds himself suddenly dissolving into laughter or tears. As for his popularity, a recent piece in Publishers Weekly, which ran before his three-book deal with Random House was made public, will perhaps be more convincing than any editor trying to flog a book in a fact sheet could be: "In February alone, three of Collins' collections sold nearly 8000 copies ... Fresh Air/Terry Gross recently rebroadcast an hour-long interview with Collins; the following day Picnic, Lightning briefly hit #59 in Amazon.com's bestseller rankings." Billy Collins is a dynamic and popular reader. He makes between thirty and forty appearances a year. His arrival at a prominent trade publishing house will ensure an even wider audience for his poetry and will capitalize on his increasing popularity. Household name may not be too much to ask for