I usually share a kids’ poem, but today I’m sharing one by Billy Collins from his forthcoming Aimless Love. It’s available on Kindle now and in print next month. It includes selections from many of his collections, including Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry, and more, including new poems not collected before. Most Billy Collins poems make me smile, and this one (from Ballistics)?is no exception. I like the whole poem, but I’m a realist and a short-poem fan, so…if you don’t want to read the whole poem, make sure to at least catch the first and last stanzas:>)Bathtub Families
is not just a phrase I made up
though it would have given me pleasure
to have written those words in a notebook
then looked up at the sky wondering what they meant.
No, I saw Bathtub Families in a pharmacy
on the label of a clear plastic package
containing one cow and four calves,
a little family of animals meant to float in your tub.
I hesitated to buy it because I knew
I would then want the entire series of Bathtub Families,
which would leave no room in the tub
for the turtles, the pigs, the seals, the giraffes, and me.
It’s enough just to have the words,
which alone make me even more grateful
that I was born in America
and English is my mother tongue.
I was lucky, too, that I waited
for the pharmacist to fill my prescription,
otherwise I might not have wandered
down the aisle with the Bathtub Families.
I think what I am really saying is that language
is better than reality, so it doesn’t have
to be bath time for you to enjoy
all the Bathtub Families as they float in the air around your head.
–Billy Collins, all rights reserved (boldface added by me)
I’m loving Aimless Love, which is giving me good reason to read some Collins poems I haven’t looked at in quite a while and also introducing me to some new ones. And I really love having poetry on my Kindle. There are so many times when I have just enough time for a poem or two in between errands, waiting in line, etc. Poems by Collins, Janet Wong, David Harrison, all the wonderful poets in the Poetry Friday Anthologies…they all make the little pauses in my days more meaningful.
Tabatha at the Opposite of Indifference has?today’s Poetry Friday roundup?at her Poetry Blog– enjoy!
Review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
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I love this poem! All of it! Thanks for giving me a smile this morning!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I love this poem! All of it! Thanks for giving me a smile this morning!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I love the poem, too, Laura. I also love your Kindle suggestion for poems. I am finding my Droid phone a blessing in the way I can use it as a Kindle (which I don’t own but also have on my laptop). There are moments we really need to sit with a poem and our poet friends, real or imagined, near or far. Thanks for this.
Yeah, that 3-minute poetry break really helps:>)
I love the poem, too, Laura. I also love your Kindle suggestion for poems. I am finding my Droid phone a blessing in the way I can use it as a Kindle (which I don’t own but also have on my laptop). There are moments we really need to sit with a poem and our poet friends, real or imagined, near or far. Thanks for this.
Yeah, that 3-minute poetry break really helps:>)
Wonderful, Laura! I want a bathtub family of my own! I love BIlly Collins for his love of English and his amazing poetry. Your post made me all warm inside because I love our native language too!
I’m copyediting a reading program heavy on phonics and comprehension and spelling, and while I wouldn’t want to teach with it myself, it’s been fascinating to learn even more from a linguistic standpoint. The English language is so challenging, but so rewarding!
Wonderful, Laura! I want a bathtub family of my own! I love BIlly Collins for his love of English and his amazing poetry. Your post made me all warm inside because I love our native language too!
I’m copyediting a reading program heavy on phonics and comprehension and spelling, and while I wouldn’t want to teach with it myself, it’s been fascinating to learn even more from a linguistic standpoint. The English language is so challenging, but so rewarding!
This is a wonderful, imaginative poem. I had never heard of Bathtub Families. I just went and checked them out! They’re so cute. They deserve a poem!
I’m pretty excited about your post today Laura…I actually misread it in my email and came up with an idea for a new poem or picture book. All because of you and Billy Collins!
Love that, Penny and congratulations on your new book!! So happy for you and kids and us!
I hadn’t ever heard of them, either. And I love that! That has happened once or twice to me, and it feels like such a gift. Your brain misread on purpose and came up with that great idea–go get it!
This is a wonderful, imaginative poem. I had never heard of Bathtub Families. I just went and checked them out! They’re so cute. They deserve a poem!
I’m pretty excited about your post today Laura…I actually misread it in my email and came up with an idea for a new poem or picture book. All because of you and Billy Collins!
Love that, Penny and congratulations on your new book!! So happy for you and kids and us!
I hadn’t ever heard of them, either. And I love that! That has happened once or twice to me, and it feels like such a gift. Your brain misread on purpose and came up with that great idea–go get it!
This is great, Laura– I wouldn’t expect any less from Billy Collins! Why am I not surprised to learn that he bathes with turtles, pigs, seals, and giraffes?
Exactly!
This is great, Laura– I wouldn’t expect any less from Billy Collins! Why am I not surprised to learn that he bathes with turtles, pigs, seals, and giraffes?
Exactly!
I love having poetry on my Kindle too, even though sometimes the formatting is messed up, and that bothers me more than I would have thought it would. But Billy Collins is so wonderful. Thanks for sharing this!
I do hate that, too, Ruth. It’s why I don’t usually buy poetry picture books as e-books. The ones that were actually conceived AS e-books are typically better. Ones that are print picture books made into an e-version by a publisher are usually terrible (speaking from personal experience).
I love having poetry on my Kindle too, even though sometimes the formatting is messed up, and that bothers me more than I would have thought it would. But Billy Collins is so wonderful. Thanks for sharing this!
I do hate that, too, Ruth. It’s why I don’t usually buy poetry picture books as e-books. The ones that were actually conceived AS e-books are typically better. Ones that are print picture books made into an e-version by a publisher are usually terrible (speaking from personal experience).
Billy Collins is a favorite. Bathtub Families reminds me of the time when my daughter was still very young. Time just flies past you. 🙂
So true, Myra. My two daughters just turned 18 and 21. I am floored.
Billy Collins is a favorite. Bathtub Families reminds me of the time when my daughter was still very young. Time just flies past you. 🙂
So true, Myra. My two daughters just turned 18 and 21. I am floored.