4thace reviewed Horoscopes for the dead by Billy Collins
Review of 'Horoscopes for the dead' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Billy Collins has had a lock on wry poems by American authors for a while now. This corner of humor has a kind of bittersweet aspect to it, a kind of quiet keen observation of things external and internal and how they relate to one another. When he engages in wit, there may be wordplay, maybe a hint of slapstick, but the payoff comes in the growth of realization, whether sudden or gradual, of the implications of the topics contained in it. The diction is usually relaxed and vernacular though with a special care taken when the choice of words that ordinary writing does not always display. I have a number of his other books, but must have missed this one when it came out a decade ago.
His poems here are as unexpected as usual (which sounds like a contradiction but really isn't). He doesn't really stick to a …
Billy Collins has had a lock on wry poems by American authors for a while now. This corner of humor has a kind of bittersweet aspect to it, a kind of quiet keen observation of things external and internal and how they relate to one another. When he engages in wit, there may be wordplay, maybe a hint of slapstick, but the payoff comes in the growth of realization, whether sudden or gradual, of the implications of the topics contained in it. The diction is usually relaxed and vernacular though with a special care taken when the choice of words that ordinary writing does not always display. I have a number of his other books, but must have missed this one when it came out a decade ago.
His poems here are as unexpected as usual (which sounds like a contradiction but really isn't). He doesn't really stick to a set of categories of subject I think or write multiple pieces from the same bit of inspiration. The title poem is really the only one about losing someone, for instance, starting in this fashion:
Every morning since you disappeared for good,
I read about you in the daily paper
along with the box scores, the weather, and all the bad news.
Some days I am reminded that today
will not be a wildly romantic time for you,
nor will you be challenged by educational goals,
nor will you need to be circumspect at the workplace.
although the poem immediately following is entitled "Hell," and later on in the book there's one about riding a bike past a cemetery.
I would recommend any of this author's books to people who like this kind of thing, though I wouldn't be likely to say that any of them was the best book ever written. His style has clearly had an influence on me and the way I think about what kind of poems there are to write.