The Country - Billy Collins Animated Poetry

Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate and one of America's best-selling poets, reads his poem "The Country" with animation by Brady Baltezor of Radium.

Noted for their intelligent humor, accessibility and observations on daily life, Collins' popular poems come alive further in a series of animated poems produced by JWT-NY.

Transcript -

I wondered about you
when you told me never to leave
a box of wooden, strike-anywhere matches
lying around the house because the mice

might get into them and start a fire.
But your face was absolutely straight
when you twisted the lid down on the round tin
where the matches, you said, are always stowed.

Who could sleep that night?
Who could whisk away the thought
of the one unlikely mouse
padding along a cold water pipe

behind the floral wallpaper
gripping a single wooden match
between the needles of his teeth?
Who could not see him rounding a corner,

the blue tip scratching against a rough-hewn beam,
the sudden flare, and the creature
for one bright, shining moment
suddenly thrust ahead of his time -

now a fire-starter, now a torchbearer
in a forgotten ritual, little brown druid
illuminating some ancient night.
Who could fail to notice,

lit up in the blazing insulation,
the tiny looks of wonderment on the faces of his fellow mice, onetime inhabitants
of what once was your house in the country?

• Category

  Film & Animation

[oruga101]

I wish someone would animate my poems and read them in a dull monotone.

[Jeff Trujillo]

that was f#c&kin sweet

[Will Simon]

I'll do the monotone reading!

[ItsKingPeacock]

Then write some better poems. Apparently right now you aren't even worth the monotone, let alone the animation.

[Courtney x]

Haha! I like when he's waving the match around and the other mice are cheering XD

[acari27]

monotone yes...dull?..never...

[blowery261]

Yes, and how would you like it to be read instead?

[21stcenturyrockpoet]

Yeah, great poet and voice.... And the animation is fantastic. Matches poem. Who is this director? And can I get him to do some of my poems?

[Teri Frazier]

It is indeed Billy Collins' talking / reading his own poem. I had the honor of attending a Mercer Press event in Atlanta where he read three poems. He is remarkable via the use of his dry and monotone cadence in rendering a poem to the level of mesmerizing.

[cutecupkait]

I have no idea what it means, but it was pretty. :D

[acari27]

its a brilliant poem..very observant, very imaginative and beautifully quirky...