{"product_id":"musical-tables-poems","title":"Musical Tables: Poems","description":"\u003cb\u003eNATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the former United States Poet Laureate and \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAimless Love, \u003c\/i\u003ea collection of more than 135 small poems, eleven of them new to this edition, and each a thought or observation compressed to its emotional essence\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Whenever I pick up a new book of poems, I flip through the pages looking for small ones. Just as I might have trust in an abstract painter more if I knew he or she could draw a credible chicken, I have faith in poets who can go short.\"--Billy Collins\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eYou can spot a Billy Collins poem immediately. The amiable voice, the light touch, the sudden turn at the end. He \"puts the 'fun' back in profundity,\" says poet Alice Fulton. In his own words, his poems tend to \"begin in Kansas and end in Oz.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNow \"America's favorite poet\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e) has found a new form for his unique poetic style: the small poem. Here Collins writes about his trademark themes of nature, animals, poetry, mortality, absurdity, and love--all in a handful of lines. Neither haiku nor limerick, the small poem pushes to an extreme poetry's famed power to condense emotional and conceptual meaning. Inspired by the small poetry of writers as diverse as William Carlos Williams, W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan, and Charles Simic, and written with Collins's recognizable wit and wisdom, the poems of \u003ci\u003eMusical Tables\u003c\/i\u003e show one of our greatest poets channeling his unique voice into a new phase of his exceptional career. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e3:00 AM\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eOnly my hand\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eis asleep, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ebut it's a start.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Billy Collins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793377689642,"sku":"9780399589805","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/musical-tables-poems-1440991.jpg?v=1762149282","url":"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/products\/musical-tables-poems","provider":"The Poetry Shop LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}