Billy Collins

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House

Language: english
Translations: german (Ein weiterer Grund, warum ich keine Flinte zu Hause habe), hungarian (Például ezért sem tartok otthon puskát)

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.

© University of Arkansas Press
From: The Apple that Astonished Paris
Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press , 1988
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin 2011

Billy Collins

photo © gezett.de
* , New York, United States
lives in: Somers, United States
Billy Collins was born in New York City in 1941. He is the author of several award winding books of poetry, and a recording of reading thirty-three of his poems, The Best Cigarette, was released in 1997. Collins's poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks, and a variety of periodicals, including Poetry, American Poetry Review, American Scholar, Harper's, Paris Review, and The New Yorker.

His work has been featured in the Pushcart Prize Anthology and has been chosen several times for the annual Best American Poetry series. Collins has edited Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry (Random House, 2003), an anthology of contemporary poems for use in schools and was a guest editor for the 2006 edition of The Best American Poetry.

photo © gezett.de
In 2001, Collins was named U.S. Poet Laureate. His other honors and awards include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1992, he was chosen by the New York Public Library to serve as 'Literary Lion'. He has conducted summer poetry workshops in Ireland at University College Galway, and taught at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence, and Lehman College, City University of New York. He lives in Somers, New York.
Publications

  • Pokerface

    Kenmore Press, 1977

  • Video Poems

    Applezaba Press, 1980

  • The Apple That Astonished Paris

    Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press, 1988

  • Questions About Angels

    Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991

  • The Art of Drowning

    Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995

  • The Best Cigarette

    Audio CD

    1997

  • Picnic, Lightning

    Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998

  • Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes: Selected Poems

    Picador, 2000

  • Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems

    Random House, 2001

  • Nine Horses

    Random House, 2002

  • The Trouble with Poetry

    Random House, 2005

  • She Was Just Seventeen

    Santa Fe: Modern Haiku Press, 2006

  • Ballistics

    Random House, 2008

  • Horoscopes for the Dead

    Random House, 2011

Awards

  • 1983 Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts

  • 1986 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts

  • 1991 National Poetry Series Publication Prize

  • 1992 New York Public Library 'Literary Lion'

  • 1993 Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation

  • 1994 Poetry Magazine - Poet of the Year

  • 2001 American Irish Historical Society Cultural Award

  • 2001-2002 US Poet Laureate

  • 2004 New York State Poet Laureate

  • 2005 Mark Twain Award for Humor in Poetry

Links
Video

Remember poem / Add to List

remembered 8 times

Included in the following lists

Poem already on my list

If you want to remember or list a poem, become a community member.

Login/Register now

Random poem

PUSH!