The better angels of poetry

Hello friends, it is not only others who ask “where poems come from” or “what does this poem mean?” Often poets themselves don’t know how inspiration arrives; we amuse ourselves thinking we are entertaining muses unaware, much as some like to think of better angels.  Here is a poem by Billy Collins that tries to describe what happens after the poet struggles to put his words on paper.  It reminds me of a good way to listen to any poem. The photo is a snap of Clela Reed and myself in 2015 at Bentley Adult Day Care Center in Athens. Thanks, Gene

Introduction to Poetry
BY BILLY COLLINS

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.