'To a place in the imagination'

 

“I'm trying to write poems that involve beginning at a known place, and ending up at a slightly different place. I'm trying to take a little journey from one place to another, and it's usually from a realistic place, to a place in the imagination.” – Billy Collins

Born in New York City in 1941, the two-time U.S. Poet Laureate’s works range from humorous to thought-provoking to deeply moving.   His most recent book is Musical Tables: Poems.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Collins’ 
                                                Invention                                                        

Tonight the moon is a cracker,
with a bite out of it
floating in the night,

and in a week or so
according to the calendar
it will probably look

like a silver football,
and nine, maybe ten days ago
it reminded me of a thin bright claw.

But eventually --
by the end of the month,
I reckon --

it will waste away
to nothing,
nothing but stars in the sky,

and I will have a few nights
to myself,
a little time to rest my jittery pen.