Saturday, 10 September 2022

On Reading Billy Collins

On reading a poem by Billy Collins

who infuses the everyday

with a dash of magic realism

I contemplate my sticky notes on the wall-

Numeros 1-100 in Spanish,

though I am now embarked on a Deutsche word trail,


And along side them and billowing sideways 

a copy of one of Billy's poems entitled

On Not Finding You at Home


And I'm thinking

I'd never think to write a poem about that-

filling absence with substance 

more potent than presence


But I conjure you up now

a yo-yo strung out and spinning

somewhere in the Irish Sea 

or up the Boyne river,

my finger in the slip knot 

working the axle

spooling the string

that will reel you back home.


Copyright 2022 Cathy Leonard All rights reserved


For some interesting facts about yo-yos see link below

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo-yo

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