On Turning Tenby Billy Collins
"The whole idea of it makes me feel like I'm coming down with something"
From the opening line, he's got me. It's tough to articulate why I like this opening line so much. It's simple, but it just sounds poetic. Yet ordinary at the same time. I don't know. I don't know how he does it. Make ordinary lines sound poetic.
He's writing about a sad 9-year-old turning "the first big number" even though the poet is old. He captures that youthful feeling that I'm still trying to recognize myself.
The poem is both funny and serious. It seems like too many poems are either one or the other. This poem cracks me up with lines like "This is the beginning of sadness" and "You tell me it is too early to be looking back." He's not turning 40! He's turning 10 for crying out loud. The speaker in this poem reminds me of Manny from Modern Family.
There's a lot of seriousness in the poem, though. "But now I am mostly at the window watching the late afternoon light." Even though that line is funny as well, because he's only ten...it's still a sad picture. And the closing image breaks my heart. This young kid realizing for the first time that he's mortal. That if he falls, he bleeds.
Billy Collins makes me want to be a poet.
