Picnic, Lightning (Pitt Poetry Series) - Softcover

Collins, Billy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822956705 ISBN 13: 9780822956709

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998

Synopsis

This sixth collection of poems by Billy Collins touches on a wide range of subjects from jazz to death, from weather to sex. His language is contoured, self-aware and full of juxtapositions.

About this title

Review:

"The easy swing of Collins's lines reflect his love of jazz and his ready response to beauty; the warmth of his voice emanates from his instinct for pleasure and his propensity toward humor. . . . Collins is jazzman and Buddhist, charmer and prince."
--Booklist

"Billy Collins writes a kind of poetry that is . . . graceful, inviting, generous-hearted, able to treat engagingly of life's pleasures as well as its pain. . . . entering a poem by Mr. Collins is like entering a comfortable yet beautifully appointed guet room; for the time being, it will give you all that you need."

--The Washington Times

"These are wonderful poems and he's one of our best poets."

--American Poet

"Billy Collins's poetry is heartbreakingly beautiful. It is also wise, funny, and brilliant. My ten favorites keep shifting all the time. Ovid is in again; so is Billy Collins."

--Gerald Stern

"Billy Collins, America's poet laureate, 'hits you between the eyes' with his 'twisted' take on everyday life."

--U.S. News & World Report

"Billy Collins writes lovely poems--lovely in a way almost nobody's since Roethke's are. Limpid, gently and consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides."
--John Updike

"I have never before felt possessive about a poet, but I am fiercely glad that Billy Collins is ours--smart, his strings tuned and resonant, his wonderful eye looping over the things, events and ideas of the world, rueful, playful, warm-voiced, easy to love."
--E. Annie Proulx

About the Author:

Billy Collins, named U.S. Poet Laureate in June 2001 and reappointed to the post in 2002, has published many collections of poetry, including The Apple That Astonished Paris; Nine Horses; The Art of Drowning; Picnic, Lightning; Questions about Angels; and Sailing Alone Around the Room. A professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York, he lives in Somers, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0822956705
• ISBN 13: 9780822956709
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 104