Billy Collins

SURPRISE

Language: english
Translations: german (Überraschung), hungarian (Meglepetés)

SURPRISE

This-
According to the voice on the radio,
The host of a classical music program no less-
This is the birthday of Vivaldi.

He would be 325 years old today, quite bent over, I would imagine,
And not able to see much through his watery eyes.

Surely, he would be deaf by now,
The clothes flaking off him,
Hair pitiably sparse.

But we would throw a party for him anyway,
A surprise party where everyone
Would hide behind the furniture to listen

For the tap of his cane on the pavement
And the sound of his dry, persistent cough.

© Random House
From: Nine Horses: Poems
New York: Random House, 2002
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

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