Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing this book, with my honest review below.

I’ve always been a fan of Billy Collin’s approachable poetry and this book of poems was as familiar and appealing as his previous ones. Poetry that would appeal and be understood by most, no matter the walk of life or age is hard to come by Mr. Collins shines with this style and Water, Water strikes the perfect tone for so many.

If/Then, Sunday Drive, and Emily Dickinson in Space were some of my favorites but as seen by other reviews the appeal of these poems is depending on your mood, your experience, the day your choice may vary but you’ll find something that speaks to you no matter who you are.

I loved these poems! This is my second Billy Collins collection and I'm certainly a fan now. I love his writing, it's insightful yet very funny and observant of every day life.

ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕥: 𝐸-𝐵𝑜𝑜𝓀

ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨: 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐄𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐦 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐦, 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬’ 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐞𝐭!

𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝐵𝒾𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒞𝑜𝓁𝓁𝒾𝓃𝓈, 𝑅𝒶𝓃𝒹𝑜𝓂 𝐻𝑜𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝒫𝓊𝒷𝓁𝒾𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔, & 𝒩𝑒𝓉𝒢𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒜𝑅𝒞! 𝒜𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝓅𝒾𝓃𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃.

If Billy Collins has a new poetry collection out, I am there for it. Each one of these poems speaks of his signature style, crafting through humor and a look at life that is unique and unexpected. Collins can take even the simplest moment in life and bring a new light to it.

Billy Collins' collection of poetry Water, Water is 91 pages long. It was the book cover that initially intrigued me, depicting a rabbit racing across a meadow.

I highlighted some of the poems that I found particularly engaging.

Magical Realism

BC/AD

Turning the Pages of A History of Art the Morning After an Argument

Emily Dickinson in Space

Eden

Display Case

Zero Grannies

Margins

Reading the Guest Book


Margins

I cannot thank you enough

so I will thank you insufficiently,

for the book full of reproductions

of the whimsical drawings found

in the margins of medieval manuscripts,

which you gave me the last time we met for ice cream.

I love turning the colorful pages

and seeing the tiny scribal adornments,

especially of animals still around today ––

the robin, the frog, the spoonbill, and the hen,

not to mention the goose, the fox, and the partridge,

all surviving in our meadows, swamps, and barnyards.

I also enjoyed the half-boy blowing a horn

and the four monks rowing a rowboat,

but I would really like to meet the guy

who distracted himself one morning

early in the thirteenth century

from the arduous job of copying the Alphonso Psalter

by drawing a monkey doing a handstand

on the back of a comely mermaid

as she is offering a breast to a nursing baby.

I'd like to buy that man a few flagons

and a slice of venison to chew on

as we got to know one another in his favorite pub.

He would introduce me to his friends,

a ploughman, a merchant, and a wayward prioress,

and I would refrain from telling him

about motion pictures and moon landings.

After a while, light would leave the windows

and the ruddy publican would call the time.

Then outside under the sign, as we said goodbye

I would add "But in the end, of course,

life is not all hand-stand monkeys

and comely nursing mermaids."

"It isn't?!" he would shoot back with a booming laugh,

which would leave me nonplussed as I walked back.

past printing presses, guillontines, microscopes,

locomotives, radios, and ice cream parlors,

all the way up to the encircling arms of the present.

My mind can visually picture the manuscript drawings and the meeting between the two gentlemen. It would have been so hard to keep future events a secret. In the last stanza, the poet wraps up the poem beautifully as he journeys back to the present.

My style was definitely not reflected in some of the poems in the book, but I think everyone can find that in any collection of poems. I think Collins' poems capture life's paradoxes and everyday experiences. He captures both common and quite unusual events in his poems, such as children learning their ABCs and an astronaut reading Emily Dickinson in space. Water, Water is a book I enjoyed reading and I am sure you will as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!

Billy Collins’s "Water, Water" is a well-worn sweater of a poetry collection, offering comfort in its unadorned warm-heartedness.

The collection is decidedly unambitious, which gradually begins to feel like its own kind of ambition. These poems celebrate poetry through its limitations, affectionately referencing great poets while seeming to suggest that the best thing someone could do is put down the book, go for a walk, and call a loved one. Each line exists to remind the reader that a line can only go so far. While it sounds like this could be treacly, it’s not. Every turn is like rounding the corner and bumping into a friend you haven’t seen in a while—nothing is as pleasantly surprising as familiarity.

Collins uses excitedly grounded language, eschewing abstractions that might make poems inaccessible. Across the book, there are moments of clarifying, elemental crisis, such as fires and floods, but even these serve as a form of catharsis, suggesting that one’s important memories and relationships would emerge stronger. The poet notes, fairly directly, the way that sharing an event transforms it into something meaningful, and this could be viewed as the poetics of the book as a whole—these pieces become poems because they are meant to be experienced together, and the resulting warmth is so invitational that it makes the collection feel distinctive in its appeal towards universality.

It feels appropriate that the collection’s title is a reference to something so essential for life—"Water, Water"—because Collins constantly leads readers to the essence of what a privilege it is to be alive. I can't think of a more worthwhile subject for a book.

But plenty to drink too!
It's official. Collins is my favorite modern poet. None of the maudlin navel-gazing and exhaustive microanalysis of one's inner self/race/abuse/sexuality that other poetry out there seems to thrive on.
Collins' poems are lovely - lovely observations of everyday things and everyday life.
Slice of life sketches wrapped into the rhythmic but never rhyming thing that is poetry these days.
So if you want to read poetry that will elate and delight, look no further. There's plenty of the other kind out in the world. But why dwell, when you can punch up? Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

I was eager to read this book, having learned of Collins’ relocation to Florida from the cold New England winters, bitter to the bones of old men and women. The seasonal climate, the fauna, the birds, the breadth and brightness of the sky of Florida, conducive to the constitution of old snow birds, what effect, I wondered, would the regional change have on Collins’ poetry.

There is an introductory poem about New England winters, of which Collins describes in verse, somber and beautiful. But he’s not fooling anyone. This is the sole winter poem in the collection, his good bye and good riddance poem, but written on good terms. He knows it’s best never to burn bridges.

His observations of the Sunshine State are fewer than expected, but they are there. He appears to be happy with ibises, the first I’ve seen in a poem, his Hawaiian shirt and green sneakers as he ponders why he can’t be Sonny Rollins or why his father was not employed before the 15th century when men sired interesting, and often weird, poets who would earn posterity. Collins ponders much on the past in these pages, his and humanity’s past. Time and space as infinite and boundless, mysterious and curious, as his college students remind him as they question him about the backwardness of BC, become BCE, compared to AD time, providing more material for his ponderings.

Once upon a time there were four elements. Collins writes poems for each of them: a notable in the late middle ages burning papers in a fireplace; Collins at the beach, standing up to his neck in water; and, two for one, visiting Australia and lying on the ground, staring up at the Southern Cross.

Yes, these are profound poems, arguably Collins’ best book, a deep profundity shared in a conversational language of small talk and everyday things, accessible to the man and woman at the big box supermarket. This is poetry at its best and, less we forget, written by a man in green shoes. Mr Collins, enjoy the warm winters, and be well.

Thank you to Billy Collins for writing this book, his publisher, Penguin Random House, for making it available, and NetGalley for an ARC.

This collection of new poems has the same depth and feel of Sailing Alone Around the Room. Collins uses trademark humor and storytelling in this book, with a deft hand, and offers insight into the happiness that can be found in the mundane. Thoroughly enjoyable. Very much like his older works, and melancholic without being morbid. Quirky without being silly. Thoughtful and lucid. Right up there with Ballistics in terms of mood and character, and a must have addition to any Collins collection.

I’ve been a fan of Billy Collins for a quarter of a century, and I can honestly say I’ve never been disappointed with a collection of his poetry. Water, Water is no exception. I particularly loved the exceptional sad ‘Anniversary’, the self-referential ‘The Monet Conundrum’ and the hilarious ‘The First Typewriter’.

Thank you to Random House for the amazing opportunity to read this eARC before publication. It will certainly join its brethren in physical form on my bookshelf.

This was a beautiful collection of poetry. It felt real, connected to the world. There was times his poems gave me chills and others that left me in awe. I’ve never read any of his books before. And I was wonderfully surprised with how amazing it was.

This is a book of poetry that I don't think would be fair for me to rate via the star system. Why? Because the style of Mr. Collins's poetry is not my preferred style of poems. As such, I don't feel that I can judge/rate his book of poetry in any manner that would make sense.

I really, really liked the poem Sunday Drive & If/Then though. If/Then, specifically, will speak for many I think.

(Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Random for the opportunity to read Water, Water by Billy Collins. He had done it again! Made me smile, chuckle, laugh out loud, and cry. All while feeling joyous and nostalgic and wrapped in words. This collection is truly magical.

Billy Collins has long been my companion. No, I don't know him personally, but when reading him, I feel that somehow he might just know me. "Water, Water" is breathtaking, tearjerking, and wonderful. There is something about it that is so nostalgic and familiar, while at the same time being absolutely magical. Bravo Billy, you've done it again.

For those familiar with poet Billy Collins, "Water, Water" will be like welcoming back a trusted and adored companion.

The former United States Poet Laureate, Collins is a master at writing in ways that are both universal and intimate, familiar yet mysterious. This is very much alive in "Water, Water," a collection of 60 poems focused on the joy and mystery of daily life.

While my usual poetry preferences lean toward Bukowski-esque writers (limited pool, I know), there's something about Collins I absolutely adore. It is, perhaps, his ability to begin, as he states, with clarity before moving into the more mysterious nuances of daily life. It may, perhaps, be his accessibility as a writer, as an instructor (Collins is a Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College and is currently a member of the faculty at SUNY Stony Brook Southampton), and as a human being.

There's a joy that comes to life in Collins's writing that is absolutely compelling. He brings it further to life when one hears him teach, speak, or read his poetry.

"Water, Water" is a collection that triggered my imagination and felt like a full-on sensory experience. "Against Longing" gripped by beautiful imagery and poignant reality. "Drawing a Pineapple" made me both laugh and dream. I would dare say that "Your Poem" is touching in its simplicity and sense of calling.

There are more poems that I loved here, of course. "Reading the Guest Book," "The Monet Conundrum," "Days of Teenage Glory" and others. Piece of this collection have been published elsewhere, however, they all seem to fit together so beautifully that I found myself fully satisfied by book's end.

For Billy Collins fans, "Water, Water" is a must. For those new to Collins, "Water, Water" will be an introduction to a wonderful poet that will make you want to explore his other works.

Thanks to NetGalley for another ARC! My parents introduced me to Billy Collins sometime ago, and while I found him funny and endearing, I didn't, at the time, get what the fuss was about. Now I'm a little older, the world is a little scarier, and Billy Collins' new collection of poetry hits MUCH harder. Whimsical, lovely, relatable. A great read, just what Doctor Jesus ordered.