Forgetfulness - Billy Collins Animated Poetry

View poetry in an entirely new and innovative way. Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate and one of America's best-selling poets, reads his poem "Forgetfulness" with animation by Julian Grey of Headgear.

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.

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The Poem - The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of, as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones. Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag, and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay. Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen. It has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall, well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle. No wonder you rise in the middle of the night to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war. No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• poet
• laureat
• poetry
• Billy
• Collins
• animation
• JWT
• NY
• forget
• forgetting

[Nickthejedi1]

Billy Collins is a good man. His poems become so alive when you read them.

I am nerd at school for reading and enjoying poems like this. The kids are amazing, they actually have the nerve to ask me, "why do you read?" I might as well ask them, "why do you watch television?" To me, reading is my television. I can easily depict Billy Collins' poems in my head. I reccomend his poem "Aimless Love." I absolutely love it.

[buberandthebee]

You have to experience people or friends or family with dementia, or who become comatose, and fear a similar loss, to understand the poem. The loss of memory to me is death - a melancholic stillness I have seen over and over in the hospital. If I had not experienced death in others, the death of mind followed by bodily death, the poem wouldn't resonate with me. But it does, strongly. The poem tells me that we are all more acquainted with death than we think, we feel it intimately and daily.

[gschupfter]

I favourited this video years ago, because I liked the animation, now i stumbeled upon it and now i understand it!

I love it :D

[devikama1994]

wonderful.................kett­o!



[mdtsendon]

It was by chance I got to this video, and how I loved that chance. Thumbs up!

[ladymoor2]

Billy is very connected to the poignancy of loss but lets us all laugh a little as we slip away.I love him.

[manatsunoshi]

the voice is kinda like text document audio reader, only better :) it relaxes me :)

[mikamo]

Anyone know what type of film this is? It looks like 16mm but I can't be sure.

[lushstories]

I can certainly relate to this poem. My grandmother had alzheimers for 30 years, and died a total shell of a person, aged 94. She didn't recognise me for a couple of decades. Incredibly hard seeing someone in that state.

[RscChingpow]

He sounds remarkably like Microsoft Sam. Hmm...

[visuality77]

nice...

[forgivemefather1988]

what program was this edited in? Its quite beautifully done