Billy Collins: Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems (New York: Random House, 2013)

I’m, glad that I decided to make 2014 the year of reading Billy Collins poems. I haven’t decided for sure, but it seems to me that perhaps not only is poetry an acquired taste, but it is a flavor that develops with age. I seem to find more meaning and pleasure from poetry now that I have passed 60 than I did when I was younger. Among other things, I finally give myself the gift of time to read and savor poems. One or two a day is enough and gives enough time to think and remember and enjoy.

Billy Collins has a unique kind of genius with words that allows him to explore a wide variety of meanings while at the same time maintaining a sense of playfulness. Everyday life is his source of inspiration. Some poets write about the extremes of love and life and loss, and their poems are rich and meaningful. Collins writs about everyday objects, situations and the kind of people I know. His poems become one of the refrains of my struggle to make meaning out of this one life on earth.

This is a book to which I will return again and again. It is a book that will be a source for perspective for many years to come.