Review for “Charleston Gazette-Mail” January 18-19, 2025 Saturday-Sunday edition.

Poet’s latest focuses on the beauty of the mundane

WATER, WATER - Billy Collins, November 19, 2024, Random House, 98 pages.

The newest volumes by the former Poet Laureate of the United States (2001-2003) was released a few months ago, but it’s still newish and it’s lovely, so it’s worth a look.

By the way, the current Poet Laureate? I did not know either, so I looked it up. It’s Ada Simon, appointed 2022, now in her second term, which will expire in 2025. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky, so she is a neighbor. And we’ve all learned.

Maybe some of you think a good poet needs to be suffering; if so Billy Collins is not for you. In this volume it’s easy to tell that Collins is content in his station in life with his wife and their world down in Florida. He’s reached a good place - and if he’s not as fiery as he might have been as a younger man, he’s now able to focus his gifts on those smaller, everyday aspects off life, things most of us might overlook, but are worth notice.

One of my favorite poems in the book is “Winter Trivia.” “Trivia,” so, clearly, something people might think is inconsequential and he begins with a factoid from THE BOOK OF TRIVIA, “it takes approximately two hours for a snowflake to fall from a cloud to the ground.”

In the roughly two hours
it takes for a snowflake
to fall from a cloud to the ground
we managed to get back to the house
bang the snow off our boots
shake out our pants in the mudroom

then stoke the stove back to life
open a bottle of wine —
I think it was a red from Oregon —
heat the white bean soup from last night
which we spooned up
sitting close to the splintering stove
after which we carried our bowls
to the kitchen and opened
an inlaid wooden box full of chips
and fanned out a fresh deck of playing cards
which you shuffled and I cut
as the house was warming up
and you tossed in a modest bet
with a red Jack showing
and I saw you with my nine
just as that singular snowflake
landed without a sound
in the general darkness of Vermont.

So lovely, the way Collins’s language puts us in the room, and makes us forget the very thing we were waiting for. He’s a master at the evocative power of the mundane. We are holding the warm soup bowl and see the steam rising from it, and we hear the crackle of the fire. The alliteration of the sibilant “s” mimics the gentle swish of the snowfall outside.

There are other gems here: “When a Man Loves Something” references the majesty of the voice of singer Percy Sledge in “When a Man Loves a Woman.” If you are a young person who has never heard this song, please go check it out, I beg of you. “The Thing” has Collins reflecting on a bowl that belonged to his mother and begins with a quote that made me laugh.

All the poems are in plain English and are easily understood. If you are convinced you don’t like poetry because you were forced to memorize “Ode on a Grecian Urn” in middle school give this a try.

Erin Brewster can be reached at erinb25314@yahoo.com

Billy Collins was my first favorite poet, and there is a reason I continue returning to his poems now, decades after I first held one of his anthologies. Collins writes poems in such an accessible way that it is really just such a delight to engage with his writing. In Water, Water, he writes with his signature humor and reflection, though this particular anthology seems to engage most with the themes of art and creation. Some of my favorite poems included Lesson Plan, Emily Dickinson in Space, The Brooklyn Dodgers, Nonsense, and Autobiography.

Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced copy.

Billy Collins masterfully finds poetry in life’s simplest moments, turning everyday objects and experiences into something profound. In Water, Water, his familiar warmth and quiet wisdom reflect a contentment that comes with age, offering a gentle yet insightful perspective on the beauty of the ordinary.

“Water, Water,” like every Billy Collins volume I have read so far, was pure pleasure from the lovely opening poem “Winter Trivia”—a beautiful evocation of a perfect winter day and evening—to the final poem, “A Change of Heart,” in which the aging Collins contemplates death with a twinkling serenity. Aging and death, in fact, are prominent themes throughout these poems but, as Collins writes in “Your Poem” toward the end of the volume, they generally convey a sense of “buoyant ease in the shadow of mortality.” Favorites for me along the way were “Aubade” (“Eventually, this thing or that will get the day rolling on the parallel rails of another month. Then off we go, Mr. Wednesday and I, waving as we slip around these many curves, him a central feature of every future week, me with one less day to live”); “Anniversary”; “The Cardinal”; “”If/Then”; and “Frost at the Stove.” This is a book to pull off the shelf and enjoy again and again.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Random House for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review. Recommended.

Water, Water is a new collection of poems by former Poet Laureate Billy Collins. The language and attention to everyday detail is extraordinary. I loved reading lines like:

"This is where I was last seen
walking to the town post office
in the shape of a white envelope
and you are forsaken on a platform,
holding an umbrella which has ceased to exist."
—From Crying in Class

I cannot recommend Water, Water highly enjoy for readers who enjoy poetry.

Every now and then, I need a good collection of poems that speak to my soul. This collection was beautiful in its rendering of everyday life. Everything in this collection felt tangible and lyrical at the same time. The imagery of everyday moments made me stop and reflect on the little things.

This was okay but kinda repetitive with no theme. I liked the idea of seeing an animal on its birthday and not knowing. Original I resonated with the goal of just “reporting on a dog or an orange” rather than his poems have some grand, Medieval theme, but then it happened over and over again and it wasn’t special anymore:

reporting on a dog or an orange

a lost dog pausing on a street light
or three lemons doing nothing in a bowl

perhaps caused by 3 oranges in a bowl
or a man out for a run
with his pug…

(3 separate poems)

*Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!*

I don't believe I've ever come across Billy Collins's poetry before this and I have to say that's kind of a shame. I really enjoyed the style of the poems in the book and wish I'd picked up some of his work sooner.
That being said, I wasn't the biggest fan of poetry until a few years back so maybe it's a null point. Either way, I really liked the poems in this one and I'm considering picking it up so I can go over the poems more carefully. There's definitely more here that I'm still missing after just reading it once. 4/5 Stars

Reading Water, Water felt like stepping into a world where everyday moments shimmer with quiet magic. Billy Collins has this remarkable way of taking ordinary experiences - things like a cat leaning over a pool or waiting for your name to be called - and turning them into something memorable. His writing made me pause, notice, and appreciate the small, often overlooked details of life.

I found myself smiling at his playful humor and reflecting on the gentle mysteries tucked into each poem. Collins’s style is so approachable, making it easy to dive into, yet every piece left me thinking. Whether you’re new to poetry or a longtime reader, I wholeheartedly recommend this collection for its warmth, wit, and ability to uncover beauty in the most unexpected places.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. If you've ever ready Billy Collins, you won't be surprised by this. He delivered on his usual style, and his poems are always relatable and easy to digest, but often with a profound message.

Billy Collins has been a favorite contemporary poet of mine ever since coming across his work in college. I'm always picking up volumes of his that I don't yet own to add to my collection, for as much as I love my ereader, poetry is one of the genres I prefer to engage with in a physical volume.

WATER, WATER is Collins' newest collection of poetry, and he again delights me with his perspective of the world and his unique ability to describe it and surprise me with his turns. From "The Cardinal," where he articulates the way being able to share with loved ones enhances our experiences of an event, to "First Typewriter," where he speculates amusingly on the outcome that could transpire were he to mistakenly confuse his typewriter cover with his parrot cover, and the resulting consequences, Collins brings readers on a pleasing journey through his creative mind. I delighted in highlighting my copy in order to remember my favorite lines and poems. 4.5 stars

(Thank you to Random House for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.)

*Water Water* by Billy Collins is a beautifully crafted collection of poems that explore the ordinary with depth and grace. Collins' signature wit and keen observations bring even the simplest moments to life, inviting readers to reflect on the everyday in a fresh way. With a mix of humor and poignancy, this collection showcases Collins’ talent for making the familiar feel profound. It’s a quick but satisfying read for poetry lovers.

In my admittedly vague memory, I seem to recall a time when Billy Collins once bore the twin burden of accessibility and popularity, which far to often means his work was written off as unworthy or dumbed down or “so simple it can’t be good” (“simple” being translated as being understood by the average person). Luckily, I think those times have passed and we’re allowed to enjoy Collins for all that he does so well. Which often means transforming the day to day moments of life into something tinged with wonder and meaning. That holds true here in his newest collection, Water, Water, though along with wonder and meaning one will probably notice that these later poems are tinged as well with influence of aging and all that entails, something unsurprising in a poet now in his eighth decade.

Collins takes notes himself his choice of topics in the early poem “Marijuana”, which opens with is declaration that “When I was young and dreamy,/I longed to be a poet,/not one with his arms/wrapped around the universe/or on his knees before a goddess,/not waving from Mount Parnassus/nor wearing a cape like Lord Byron,/rather just reporting on a dog or an orange.” His self-deprecating and tongue in cheek descriptions of his work as reportage is just one of the many ways Collins charms the reader throughout.
Similarly, his little awkward moments, “So many miscues like that these days,/as when I remarked/in a store that featured fancy pastries,/‘This isn’t your grandmother’s coffee shops!/and the girl glanced up at me/as if I were from another planet.” A cute moment that moves into a meditation on the separation of aging and the comforting commingling of life: “which of course, I was,/if the Past can be added/to the ones already orbiting the sun/including our small blue one,/which is carrying you and me/and everyone else …/in a big oval somewhere in the icy/immensity of space.”

Often Collins sets himself up against the classic concepts of “real” poets or poetry, whether it’s the above noted cape of Lordy Byron, the medieval poetry tomes with “a much bigger T/which would loom over the smaller letters/or the inspiring streets of Paris with “girls selling fruit or sweets from a cart … prostitutes circled under a street lamp … [the] solitude of the moving crowd/which would drive me to a new kind of sadness.” But, as he often returns to, “Who needs Europe?” Or those elaborate illuminated scripts when “the plain letter T will do.”

There’s a quiet, understated humor in many of these poems, a warmth suffusing nearly all, a sense of nostalgia and of time’s passing, a sense as well of not being long for this world. The poems are engaging but also thought-provoking, often with strong closes that linger beyond the word’s surface simplicity, and they nearly almost always remind the reader to pause and soak up the marvels of our allegedly mundane experiences and interactions, living in a time and place where we are so “fortunate to have people in the world like Brenda,/who know exactly what to do and do it —/nurses and firemen, eye surgeons and harbor pilots. One can include Billy Collins in that list as well.

When I saw an opportunity to read an advanced copy of Billy Collins new collection of poetry, I jumped at the chance!

Water, Water: Poems does not disappoint! I confess I have read it three times now and am on my fourth read through... I have "saved" so many poems from this collection as well... ones I have read and reread dozens more times!

If you like Billy Collins work, you will love this collection. If you have never heard of Billy Collins, this collection is a great starting point!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for the digital copy of this work. Water, Water: Poems was published November 19, 2024.

This collection was very strong and also makes you take your time in reading it. I have only read a little bit of Collins work but liked this

Lovely poems! Collins' poetry always has such great breath and speed and ease--with vivid insights throughout. Not one of my favorites of his, but I enjoyed the collection.

I tried really hard to read this slowly, to savor each poem and page, but I blazed right through it. Collins' snapshots of daily life show us the beauty in the mundane. Will reread and recommend.

What a gorgeous book of poetry by the incomparable Billy Collins. I love the cover and so many poems in this collection. I hope you'll read it to reacquaint or discover the magic created by this artist. Thanks so much to the publisher for the gifted copy.

Billy Collins's latest volume is a return to the characteristic style his readers come to expect. Those uninitiated in Collins's free verse observational poetry will find this book refreshingly accessible and relatable. Longtime readers will enjoy the familiarity of his poetic world and the seeming mundane subjects that Collins breathes life and energy into with his poetry. One particular favorite comes early in the volume, "Ode to Joy," with an example of viewing joy in daily circumstances.

Reading this felt a little bit like having an old man chat nonsense at you on the bus. Does some of it start like it's going to sound wise, moving and profound? Sure, but then he starts clucking like a chicken and the moment's passed.

(Yes, there are actually chicken clucks in these poems).

Observational, pondering, aimless-feeling poems that really didn't strike me in any particular way except for how I wasn't really enjoying the company and was ready to move seats and be away with it.