'Feeling a sense of momentum'

 

“I think what gets a poem going is an initiating line. Sometimes a first line will occur, and it goes nowhere; but other times - and this, I think, is a sense you develop - I can tell that the line wants to continue. If it does, I can feel a sense of momentum - the poem finds a reason for continuing.” – Billy Collins

Born in the Spring of 1941, Collins is the former U.S. Poet Laureate.   Internationally acclaimed and honored he has authored 18 books of poetry and edited half-a-dozen more.  Inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Letters he spends part of his “retirement” years teaching in the MFA program at Stony Brook University in Southampton, NY.

 

For Saturday’s Poem, here is Collins’,  

 

Morning

Why do we bother with the rest of the day,
the swale of the afternoon,
the sudden dip into evening,

then night with his notorious perfumes,
his many-pointed stars?

This is the best—
throwing off the light covers,
feet on the cold floor,
and buzzing around the house on espresso—

maybe a splash of water on the face,
a palmful of vitamins—
but mostly buzzing around the house on espresso,

dictionary and atlas open on the rug,
the typewriter waiting for the key of the head,
a cello on the radio,

and, if necessary, the windows—
trees fifty, a hundred years old
out there,
heavy clouds on the way
and the lawn steaming like a horse