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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780375755194
ISBN: 0375755195
Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 192
Publication Date: 2002-09-17
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Product Release Date: 2002-09-17
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Sailing Alone Around the Room, by America’s Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, contains both new poems and a generous gathering from his earlier collections The Apple That Astonished Paris, Questions About Angels, The Art of Drowning, and Picnic, Lightning. These poems show Collins at his best, performing the kinds of distinctive poetic maneuvers that have delighted and fascinated so many readers. They may begin in curiosity and end in grief; they may start with irony and end with lyric transformation; they may, and often do, begin with the everyday and end in the infinite. Possessed of a unique voice that is at once plain and melodic, Billy Collins has managed to enrich American poetry while greatly widening the circle of its audience.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Are the new poems worth buying the volume?
Review: In Billy Collins book "Sailing Around the Room", he brings together poems from "The Apple That Astonished Paris", "Questions About Angels", "The Art of Drowning" and "Picnic, Lightning" along with twenty new poems. Mainstream critics give wide acclaim for his poetry, so the remaining question is whether or not his new poems measured up to the status of Laureate.

In the new poems Collins retains the same conversational tone as his previous work. Collins also continues to poke fun at elitist critics with his reverence for the simple and straightforward in "Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems of the Sung Dynasty, I Pause to Admire the Length and Clarity of Their Titles". He refers to elitism as an iron turnstile to be pushed at (not everyone can gain admittance), and gives a made-up title of "Vortex on a String" which is a concept in superconductivity. The other title which he mentions in the poem is "Horn of Neurosis", quite possibly a psychological one. Poetry does not have to be this complicated. Collins pays homage to Chinese poetry, which focuses on simple concrete imagery, and wants to learn more about it.

A critical difference in his previous poetry and the new entries is the amount of explanation included. He explains his images more in the new poems through sparse commentary, and gives a greater insight into how he perceives certain objects, animals, people or situations. For instance, in "Dharma", his dog is to be envied or admired for the simplistic life that only people as great as Gandhi and Thoreau have achieved. Contrast this with another dog poem, "Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House" from "The Apple That Astonished Paris", where the dog is not his own. All we know about the dog is that it barks. We don't know why it barks, if the owners are cruel, we just know that it barks. There is distance here, a lack of personal connection. Although Collins has written personally in other poems, the personal reflections in these new poems are more front and center.

So if you liked Collins previous work, "Sailing Alone Around the Room" will not disappoint. The twenty new poems make the book worthwhile to purchase. For fans that are missing a book or two, this makes an excellent choice for a varied collection.

http://drtucker.blogspot.com/2007/05/horn-player-neurosis.html
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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Dhyana, Yoga and Billy Collins
Review: The transience of moments is often the subject of inquiry by artists, philosophers, and scientists alike. It is the central focus of the system of thought behind what is called here in the West as "yoga". For a yoga practitioner, Billy Collin's verse would qualify as a potential source of "bliss". Sitting with my legs uncrossed and firmly at the foot of an plush arm chair - I take a break from the Eastern asceticism to enter into Collin's world. Pleasure was the outcome when a particular moment in Collin's verse activated all the "chakras" that purportedly lie along my spine and analogous to the Western concept of "mind, body and soul"; transcending time and space. And Billy Collins does this all with wry wit and a ironic sense of humor. Often musing on scenes from the past (I guess that's the constraint of the arm chair! : "Nostalgia", "The Waitress", "Splitting Wood") and some topics waxing on the philosophical ("The Butterfly Effect" - which deals with certain actions and their resulting outcomes). The verse, depending on the reader's cultural background (think like a White Anglo Saxon Protestant for maximum effect) in an optimal situation (kids asleep, tv off) will resonate in all yogic "chakras". Try this with Milton's "Paradise Lost" which I long abandoned as culturally and historically inaccessible - at least from a casual reader's perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed and was at some points - profoundly moved by Billy Collin's anthology: "Sailing Around The Room".

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Poetry for the rest of us!
Review: Billy Collins' "Sailing Alone Around the Room" is a treasure. If there is one book of poetry I would hand to someone who has never read poetry, this would be the one. Collins conversational approach is accessible but has incredible depth and heart at the same time. He's kind of like a favorite funny uncle who just happens to be a world renowned writer. You get the sense that he can hold his own in a room full of Ph.D.s but share a laugh with the gardener who barely speaks English.

Collins poems deal with everything from Osso Bucco, the Victoria's Secret catalog to loss and death. Hard to believe someone could cover that range with such a light, deft touch but he does. It's no wonder he was America's Poet Laureate. I smiled constantly while reading this book as I saw myself and almost everyone I know represented on the pages. Collins world is not perfect but you don't detect the bitterness some times leveled at life through poetry. Instead there is a quizzical acceptance as Collins holds life "up to the light" the way he suggests students examine poetry in his poem "Introduction to Poetry".

I think of Collins as a poetic Jerry Seinfeld (without the mansion in the Hamptons). He examines the minutiae of life and finds the larger truths. His fears are laid bare as are his hopes for justice and his love for the small simple moments in life that can bring such joy that we so often overlook. In a word, it's an honest book. Collins is a master writer and one that everyone who loves words and loves life should have over for dinner. Unfortunately, he is a busy guy but fortunately we can all read "Sailing Alone Around the Room". I guarantee you'll feel like to know Billy Collins after reading this book and if you don't want to live in his world, you will have surely enjoyed spending time in it.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Put your life on hold
Review: This collection of poems should carry a warning label - the contents are additive. I'm hooked, so is every person I know who picks it up - it is "unputdownable". When has good poetry ever been this much fun?

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Plato and The Platapus Walk Into a Bar
Review: Very funny. A great way to learn about philosphy while having a good time. Fun to read while on a road trip.

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