Introduction to Poetry (Month)

It's April 1, fools, and this was fittingly the poem of the day over at poetryfoundation.org. Enjoy it, and look forward to a month of poetry-inspired posts from yours truly.

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.