“Japan” by Billy Collins
from the Billy Collins collection at Eye Dialect

      To honor his new position as US Poet Laureate, spokesman for American poets, we suggest you listen to Billy Collins' reading of a poem about poetry, itself one of his more classically poetic pieces, “Japan.” It begins...

Today I pass the time reading
a favorite haiku,
saying the few words over and over.

Then, because he is known as a genial, accessible, humorous poet, join the audience & share the laughter in Collins' live recording of “Forgetfulness.”

(Both of these are streaming RealAudio files, not downloadable MP3's, but definitely worth a listen even if you can't take them with you.)

• Coleman Barks, “Spring Morning”
• Ernie Cline, “Tech Support”
• Emily Dickinson, “I cannot live with You”
• GNO, Jason Carney & Jason Edwards (Team Dallas 1998), “Superheroes”
• Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “Trumpet Player”
• June Melby, “Dust”
• Tracie Morris, “Chain Gang”
• Sylvia Plath, “On the Decline of Oracles”
• Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”
• John Powers, “Thayer Street Blues”
• Molly Raynor, “Wings”
• Maureen Seaton, “Caprice”
• Lizzie Wann, “Patricia Said”
• Walt Whitman, “America”