Water, Water: Poems

This book just grew and grew on me as I read it. There is something conversational about these poems, and something so fresh, open, and spacious about them. You feel like you will step away from the book and see the world with more clarity.

“Emily Dickinson in Space” (while the title sounds gimmicky) is one of the loveliest.

The title poem “Water, water” lives up to being the title. Its final line: “and just enough water to fill the lake exactly to the brim.”

And “Thought a Rarity on Paper” is beautiful.

In one of the final poems, “Your Poem,” he includes the line “buoyant ease in the shadow of mortality,” which struck me as a perfect description of the overall feeling of this collection. This is the first Billy Collins book I have read, and I would definitely pick up another one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the advance copy of the book in exchange for a review