Billy Collins: 13 Bestselling Books by Poet Billy Collins

Billy Collins is an American poet whose work has appeared in a variety of periodicals including The New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the American Scholar. His audience includes
people of all backgrounds and age groups. The typical Billy Collins poem opens on a clear and hospitable note but soon takes an unexpected turn. His poems begin in irony, and may end in a moment of lyric surprise.

Billy has a degree in English from the College of the Holy Cross, and both an M.A. and Ph.D in Romantic Poetry from the University of California, Riverside. He received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in 1993, as well as others from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He was also named a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library.

In 2001, Billy was chosen by the Library of Congress to serve as the U.S. Poet Laureate, which he did until 2003, then became the New York State Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. Billy was also the first to receive the Mark Twain Award in 2005 for Humor in Poetry. He is a former Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York, and currently serves as Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute at Rollins College.

Few poets have been able to achieve the combination of critical acclaim and broad popular appeal like Billy has. He has published multiple collections of poetry over the course of his career, with some ending up on bestseller lists. Some of his books of poetry include:

1. 1. Pokerface (1977): Pokerface is Billy’s first collection of poems. Billy refers to the book as a “chapbook” for its short length; the book was only 25 pages long. Billy recalls that the book was put together by a lovely “hippie couple” in Los Angeles, noting that the book was literally hand-stitched together.
2. 2. The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988): Collins described this as his “first real book of poems.” The collection of poems in this book—including titles such as “Driving With Animals,” “Winter Syntax,” “Remembering Dreams,” and “Earthling”—was assembled when Billy gathered up what he felt were his best pieces, and mailed them off to the University of Arkansas Press. His original packet was returned with a note of encouragement from the press director at the time, which pushed Billy to take his writing more seriously.
3. 3. The Art of Drowning (1995): Praised by John Updike for Billy's profound use of descriptive language, The Art of Drowning contains titles such as “Reading in a Hammock,” “The Best Cigarette,” and “Thesaurus.” The title poem “The Art of Drowning” chronicles a man looking back on his life as he drowns.
4. 4. Picnic, Lightning (1998): Billy’s fourth book of poetry delves into subjects like weather, sex, and death, mixing thoughtful humor with grounded emotion. The collection includes titles such as “This Much I Do Remember,” “Silence,” and “After the Storm.” The title is a reference to Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.
5. 5. Questions about Angels (1999): This is regarded as one of the collections that cemented Billy’s popularity in the 1990s. It showcases Billy’s trademark wit and powers of wry observation. Some of the poems in this collection include “Going Out for Cigarettes,” “The Man in the Moon,” and “Questions About Angels.”
6. 6. Nine Horses (2002): Billy cleverly takes seemingly-everyday activities and turns them into poetry in this book. Nine Horses includes poetry titles such as “Roadside Flowers,” “Birthday,” and “Elk River Falls.”
7. 7. The Trouble With Poetry and Other Poems (2005): This book is filled with poems that epitomize Billy’s playfulness, irony, and empathy, including “Eastern Standard Time,” “Breathless,” and “The Lanyard.”
8. 8. She Was Just Seventeen (2006): This collection of haikus is another one of Billy’s “chapbooks,” containing over 40 short poems, most of which follow the “5-7-5” syllable format of haiku—though some deviate from the standard structure to play with line breaks and form.
9. 9. Ballistics (2008): Ballistics dives deep into the intricacies and ironies of youth, love, aging, and death. It includes poems like “Evasive Maneuvers,” “Hippos on Holiday,” and “Old Man Eating Alone in a Chinese Restaurant.”
10. 10. Horoscopes For the Dead (2011): Horoscopes For the Dead emphasizes the poetry of everyday life, covering subject matter like love, marriage, and dogs. Some poems in this collection include “The Chairs That No One Sits In,” “Drawing You From Memory,” and “Riverside, California.”
11. 11. Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems (2013): This New York Times bestseller contains over 50 new poems written by Billy, as well as some of his previously published works, giving readers at the time fresh material while showing his evolution.
12. 12. The Rain in Portugal: Poems (2016): Also named a bestseller by the New York Times, this insightful and humorous collection takes a look at loneliness, beauty, travel, and animals, with titles like “Lucky Cat,” “The Night of the Fallen Limb,” and “Only Child.”
13. 13. Whale Day (2020): Published by Random House in September 2020, this imaginative and whimsical volume is Collins’ most recent book of poetry. It includes titles such as “Walking My Seventy-Five-Year-Old Dog,” “Paris in May,” and “Contemporary Americans.”

Billy’s style applies humor, curiosity, and empathy to the mundane and unquestioned elements of everyday life. Some notable poems by Collins include:

1. 1. “Questions About Angels”: This wry poem is a series of musings about what angels do to pass the time, including what they wear, where they come from, and how they behave. This poem is the title poem in Billy’s 1999 book Questions About Angels.
2. 2. “Elk River Falls”: This imagery-rich poem narrates the movement of the Elk River Falls, poetically describing the sound and journey of the rushing water as it makes its way through the landscape, eventually reaching its final destination at a salty estuary.
3. 3. “The Lanyard”: This poem follows Billy on a journey back to his childhood, after he stumbles upon the word “lanyard.” Billy remembers all the wonderful things his mother did for him as a young boy (cooked him a thousand meals, taught him to swim, healed him with medicine), while all he was able to do in return is gift her with a “worthless,” woven lanyard.
4. 4. “Tanager”: This poem follows the speaker on a walk as his mind wanders. Over the course of his walk, his thoughts turn to a radio broadcast he heard that morning about the plight of prisoners. He also takes a moment to observe a red Tanager bird and its mate, along with a coyote who regards him with little interest, pairing the images of trapped prisoners with the freedom of nature.
5. 5. “Downpour”: In this poem, the narrator grapples with death and the lives of his friends who have passed on. He writes down their names on the back of a shopping list, seemingly regarding them as he would grocery items. The tone is simple and blunt, though it harbors a range of complex emotions and contrasts the sadness of death with the activeness of life.
6. 6. “Grand Central”: This short poem celebrates Grand Central Station, highlighting its character as a bustling hub for eight million New Yorkers to pass through, as they all spin within their own little orbits. He implores the reader to look up from the business of everyday life, where they might find their own place in the universe.

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