Who is Billy Collins

William James Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York (retired, 2016). Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004 through 2006. In 2016, Collins was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. As of 2020, he is a teacher in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.

Early life and education

Collins was born in Manhattan to William and Katherine Collins and grew up in Queens and White Plains. William was born to a large family from Ireland and Katherine was from Canada. His mother, Katherine Collins, was a n...
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Billy Collins Poems

• Study In Orange And White
  I knew that James Whistler was part of the Paris scene,
  but I was still surprised when I found the painting
  of his mother at the Musée d'Orsay
  among all the colored dots and mobile brushstrokes...
• The First Dream
  The Wind is ghosting around the house tonight
  and as I lean against the door of sleep
  I begin to think about the first person to dream,
  how quiet he must have seemed the next morning...
• Madmen
  They say you can jinx a poem
  if you talk about it before it is done.
  If you let it out too early, they warn,
  your poem will fly away,...
• Walking Across The Atlantic
  I wait for the holiday crowd to clear the beach
  before stepping onto the first wave.
  
  Soon I am walking across the Atlantic...
• Workshop
  I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title.
  It gets me right away because I'm in a workshop now
  so immediately the poem has my attention,
  like the Ancient Mariner grabbing me by the sleeve. ...

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Billy Collins Quotes

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