[Leica] A poem about figuring out poetry (off topic, but, not really)

["\(SonC\) Sonny Carter" <sonc@sonc.com>]

When I see critiques of photography, sometimes I feel this poem has  some
relevance.  T'was written by Billy Collins, a poet from up North (Arkansas,)

Regards,

Sonny
http://www.sonc.com

Introduction to Poetry

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.



Billy Collins

The Apple that Astonished Paris
University of Arkansas Press

Copyright © 1988 by Billy Collins.

All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.



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