Uploaded by ForaTv on Dec 27, 2007
Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2007/07/04/An_Evening_of_Poetry_with_Billy_Collins
Former United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads "Consolation," a poem about the joys of (not) traveling abroad.
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"An Evening of Poetry with Billy Collins" at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival.
Some of the most inspired and provocative thinkers, writers, artists, business people, teachers and other leaders drawn from myriad fields and from across the country and around the world all gathered in a single place - to teach, speak, lead, question, and answer at the 2006 Aspen Ideas Festival. Throughout the week, they all interacted with an audience of thoughtful people who stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought, and discussion.
Billy Collins is the author of several books of poetry and two anthologies of contemporary poetry, including The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems; The Arts of Drowning, which was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall prize; and Questions About Angels, which won the National Poetry Series in 1990. He is also a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College (CUNY). Collins served as US Poet Laureate (2001--2003) and as New York State Poet Laureate (2004--2006). Collins' poetry has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Harper's, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among many other journals and periodicals. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has won several awards and prizes.
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All Comments (20)
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fucking depressing! i know people laughed and that he wrote it so.. but damn, that's how we all feel in that situation isn't is?
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i got a poem it goes, "Shit! God Damn! Get off your ass and jam!"
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laughing through the tears...
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His pattens remind me sometimes of bukowski..without the sheer anguish.
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@Seastriker21 the humour is part of what makes it a good poem!
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I really enjoy listen to Collin works!! They are very humorous and simple (as well as beautiful). Would be a dream to meet him one day and ask for an autograph!!
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"rivers of idiom flowing freely"
"Idiom," not "idiocy."
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The one eyed camera eating the world! great!
2 years ago 5
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They laugh because he is funny. in 2005 he was awarded the first Mark Twain prize for humor in poetry by the poetry foundation. you don't get awarded for humor unless you are funny. great poem.
Golfnfnatc 3 years ago 10
brilliant, love his voice, it really brings out the character of the poem!
SeraphineSky 3 years ago 9