Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems

"NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER
"Billy Collins puts the 'fun' back in 'profundity.' "--Alice Fulton
From the two-term Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins comes his first compilation of new and selected poems in twelve years. "Aimless Love" combines more than fifty new poems with sel [...]
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"NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER
"Billy Collins puts the 'fun' back in 'profundity.' "--Alice Fulton
From the two-term Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins comes his first compilation of new and selected poems in twelve years. "Aimless Love" combines more than fifty new poems with selections from four previous books--"Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry, Ballistics, "and" Horoscopes for the Dead. "Collins's unmistakable voice, which brings together plain speech with imaginative surprise, is clearly heard on every page, reminding us how he has managed to enrich the tapestry of contemporary poetry and greatly expand its audience. His work is featured in top literary magazines such as "The New Yorker," "Poetry," and "The Atlantic," and he sells out reading venues all across the country. Appearing regularly in "The Best American Poetry" series, his poems appeal to readers and live audiences far and wide and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. By turns playful, ironic, and serious, Collins's poetry captures the nuances of everyday life while leading the reader into zones of inspired wonder. In the poet's own words, he hopes that his poems "begin in Kansas and end in Oz." Touching on the themes of love, loss, joy, and poetry itself, these poems showcase the best work of this "poet of plenitude, irony, and Augustan grace" "(The New Yorker)."
"Envoy"
Go, little book,
out of this house and into the world,
carriage made of paper rolling toward town
bearing a single passenger
beyond the reach of this jittery pen
and far from the desk and the nosy gooseneck lamp.
It is time to decamp,
put on a jacket and venture outside,
time to be regarded by other eyes,
bound to be held in foreign hands.
So off you go, infants of the brain,
with a wave and some bits of fatherly advice:
stay out as late as you like,
don't bother to call or write,
and talk to as many strangers as you can.
Praise for "Aimless Love"
" Billy Collins] is able, with precious few words, to make me cry. Or laugh out loud. He is a remarkable artist. To have such power in such an abbreviated form is deeply inspiring."--J.J. Abrams, "The New York Times Book Review"
"It's smart to be a little suspicious of the popular. I make an exception for Collins. His work is poignant, straightforward, usually funny and imaginative, also nuanced and surprising. It bears repeated reading and reading aloud. . . . Whenever I sit down with his work, I remember a choice line from the song 'For You' by that other populist, Bruce Springsteen: "'You could laugh and cry in a single sound.'" . . . There's no shtick here, no selling out for the sake of accessibility. This is why Collins is popular. He's wonderful."--"The Plain Dealer"
"Layered, subtly witty poems that anyone can understand and appreciate--even those who don't normally like poetry."--"The Christian Science Monitor"
"Collins's new poems contain everything you've come to expect from a Billy Collins poem. They stand solidly on even ground, chiseled and unbreakable. Their phrasing is elegant, the humor is alive, and the speaker continues to stroll at his own pace through the plainness of American life."--"The Daily Beast"
"A stellar jumping-off point for those who are new to Collins's] work."--"The Rumpus"