![]() The book he read from when he came to Centre. Ever since he came to speak and do a book reading at Centre College in 2006, I've been hooked on Billy Collins. He was U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001-2003, and once you've read just one of his poems, you can see why. Obviously, he has a beautiful way with words, but one of the things that I love most about his poetry is that he infuses SUCH humor into them, while still creating poignant, touching work. "The Lanyard" is a perfect example of this. Read on to allow Billy Collins to ROCK YOUR WORLD :) The Lanyard The other day I was ricocheting slowly off the blue walls of this room, moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano, from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor, when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard. No cookie nibbled by a French novelist could send one into the past more suddenly-- a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp by a deep Adirondack lake learning how to braid long thin plastic strips into a lanyard, a gift for my mother. I had never seen anyone use a lanyard or wear one, if that’s what you did with them, but that did not keep me from crossing strand over strand again and again until I had made a boxy red and white lanyard for my mother. She gave me life and milk from her breasts, and I gave her a lanyard. She nursed me in many a sick room, lifted spoons of medicine to my lips, laid cold face-cloths on my forehead, and then led me out into the airy light and taught me to walk and swim, and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard. Here are thousands of meals, she said, and here is clothing and a good education. And here is your lanyard, I replied, which I made with a little help from a counselor. Here is a breathing body and a beating heart, strong legs, bones and teeth, and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered, and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp. And here, I wish to say to her now, is a smaller gift—not the worn truth that you can never repay your mother, but the rueful admission that when she took the two-tone lanyard from my hand, I was as sure as a boy could be that this useless, worthless thing I wove out of boredom would be enough to make us even. Watch Collins read this poem aloud below: Have a wonderful Saturday! Don't forget to "press pause" and enjoy your day :) Namaste, Mary Catherine 4/2/2011 04:34:48 am
I love, love, LOVE him!! So happy to see his name on your blog. The best line : "She gave me life and milk from her breasts, Comments are closed.
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HELLO!I'm Mary Catherine, a Cape Cod-based yoga teacher, painter, designer, writer, mom, and list-maker extraordinaire. My goal is to inspire you to start living a more creative, simple, joyful, + purposeful life.
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