Billy Collins: Life Flashed Before My Eyes
by
Mazin Khoury
Published Works
Nine Horses
Sailing Alone Around the Room
Picnic Lightning
The Best Cigarette
The Art of Drowning
Questions About Angels
The Apple that Astonished Paris
“But if something does flash before your eyes as you go under, it will probably be a fish, a quick blur of curved silver darting away, having nothing to do with your life or your death” states Billy Collins in his poem “The Art of drowning” (www.bigsnap.com/billy.html). Billy Collins’s poetry shines brighter than others due to the sarcastic yet funny style he uses to create his poems. Collins uses simplistic stanzas to try to create images that pull the reader away from real life and draw them into his poetic creation. Billy Collins’s cherished American poetry is featured largely throughout the United States. His poems rarely follow a significant topic; instead they are just thoughts that happen to pop into his head. Often, he uses poetry to offer relief in troubled times for himself and the reader.
Billy Collins, a current teacher at Lehman College, was born in 1941 and has lived in New York City since his birth. Collins has completed fellowships at the New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and The Guggenheim Foundation. From day one, his talents as a writer shined through, as he was able to express his thoughts on paper well throughout grade school. Billy Collins doesn’t force meter or rhyme into his poems in order to draw the reader’s attention; instead he uses his witty descriptions and comedy. As quoted by Richard Alleva in his article of "A major minor poet": “The most important thing to say about Collins is that he is a deliberately minor poet, even a rebelliously minor poet, a poet who would reject major status if it were thrust upon him.” (Alleva, Richard. "A Major Minor Poet") Billy Collins has excelled his way through poetry fairly easy with his light verse style poems.
Billy Collins has been very successful in creating six published books and is featured around the country. His poetry is in many periodicals, and he does a lot of public reading in which he draws a large crowd. Collins has earned many awards for his incredible explanations through words. He won Best American Poetry twice for two of his books, once in 1992 and once in 1993. He won the Bess Hokin award in 1992, and finally, most recently was named US Poet Laureate in 2001. This award is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, awards received by a poet. Billy Collins has had no shortage of published books. The six currently published are: Nine Horses, Sailing Alone Around the room, Picnic Lightning, The Best Cigarette, The Art of Drowning, Questions About Angels, and The Apple that Astonished Paris. Collins continues to strive as an achieved poet as people continue to find his simplistic poetry great.