A review by writersrelief
The Art of Drowning by Billy Collins
5.0
Distinguished Professor and former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins has collected some of his best work in his poetry collection THE ART OF DROWNING.
From the opening piece, “Dear Reader,” Collins welcomes you to join him in experiencing the fleetingness of humanity and the short yet deep connection he imagines making with his readers. He expresses the beauty found in life through snapshots of brief yet meaningful moments that have captured his attention. With ideas ranging from the warmth a good meal provides in “Osso Buco” to the cold, dry contemplation of one’s death in the title poem “The Art of Drowning,” Collins manages to use his diction and matter-of-fact tone to paint a wide variety of images into the mind’s eye of his reader.
With seemingly no particular order to the work, Collins’ poems provide windows through which a reader may catch brief glimpses into a life of comfort, curiosity and quiet contemplation. Each work is exactly as long as it needs to be (none being more than two pages in length.) Some star pieces from this collection are “The Invention of the Saxophone,” “The Best Cigarette” and, of course, “The Art of Drowning.”
From the opening piece, “Dear Reader,” Collins welcomes you to join him in experiencing the fleetingness of humanity and the short yet deep connection he imagines making with his readers. He expresses the beauty found in life through snapshots of brief yet meaningful moments that have captured his attention. With ideas ranging from the warmth a good meal provides in “Osso Buco” to the cold, dry contemplation of one’s death in the title poem “The Art of Drowning,” Collins manages to use his diction and matter-of-fact tone to paint a wide variety of images into the mind’s eye of his reader.
With seemingly no particular order to the work, Collins’ poems provide windows through which a reader may catch brief glimpses into a life of comfort, curiosity and quiet contemplation. Each work is exactly as long as it needs to be (none being more than two pages in length.) Some star pieces from this collection are “The Invention of the Saxophone,” “The Best Cigarette” and, of course, “The Art of Drowning.”