MUSICAL TABLES

A fabulous new collection by Billy Collins, the former United States Poet Laureate and New York Times bestselling author. Here, Billy has done something completely new: a collection of more than 125 "small poems," each a moment or emotion compressed down to its essence. Billy Collins poems are recognizable immediately. The amiable voice, the light touch, and oftentimes, the sudden turn at the end. In his own words, his poems "start in Kansas and end in Oz."

Now "America's favorite poet" (The Wall Street Journal) has found a new form for his unique poetic style: the small poem. In MUSICAL TABLES 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. All the poems in the collection are small--a few lines, sometimes only a few words. Each can be read in a matter of seconds while still transporting you through their observational power.

3:00 AM
Only my hand
is asleep,
but it's a start.

Billy Collins is the former Poet Laureate of the United States. He is the author of twelve collections of poetry, including the bestsellers AIMLESS LOVE, THE TROUBLE WITH POETRY, and SAILING ALONE AROUND THE ROOM. He is one of America's bestselling poets. Random House has sold 1,100,000 copies of Billy's books. He is also the editor of Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, and Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds. A former Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York, Collins served as New York State Poet from 2004 to 2006. In 2016 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Florida with his wife, Suzannah. Social: Facebook.com/BillyCollinsPoetry