Tuesday, December 8, 2009

perfection

This is one of the best similes I've ever read:

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

It feels like eating 
the same small, perfect grape
again and again.

I walk through the house reciting it
and leave its letters falling
through the air of every room.

These are the first three stanzas of Billy Collins' poem, "Japan." I read this poem for the first time in college, and still remember that wonderful phrase and how perfect it is. "Japan" is a great poem. You can read the rest of it in Picnic, Lightning or Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems.

I'm not a big poetry reader myself, but Billy Collins is definitely worth reading.


No comments:

Post a Comment