The Poet Warns of Self-absorption

 

My mind does not remember my face.

It proceeds quite happily, unless tweaked,

by a doctor, an ache, a grey hair, mirror.

I can remain the same callow, gullible,

easily-distracted youth I always was.

And it is this person the dogs welcome home

because they haven’t aged either.

                                                      Guy

                                                                                                     

Normally I do not include comments on this page but last Wednesday

we went to the first poetry reading I have actually attended,

Billy Collins, one of my favorite poets, visited the University of Calgary

Thanks for pointing that out Helen.

Not only did he read some of my all-time favorites poems of his,

“I Chop Some Parsley While Listening To Art Blakey's Version

Of "Three Blind Mice”, “Today”, “Another Reason Why I Don't Keep

A Gun In The House”. He also gave some advice, one snippet of which

I used while writing this poem. Lots of his poems including the three

 I mentioned can be found on sites like PoemHunter.com or the website for

Poetry Magazine. The Paris Review also has an interview with him.

" Billy Collins, The Art of Poetry No. 83 available on the Internet.