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Excerpt from
And I start wondering how they came to be blind.
If it was congenital, they could be brothers and sister,
and I think of the poor mother
brooding over her sightless young triplets.
Or was it a common accident, all three caught
in a searing explosion, a firework perhaps?
If not,
if each came to his or her blindness separately,
how did they ever manage to find one another?
Would it not be difficult for a blind mouse
to locate even one fellow mouse with vision
let alone two other blind ones?
Billy Collins home page
Marist Digital Library: Billy Collins links
Tad Richards on Billy Collins
Equally important in Collins' work is his sense of a connection with the great poets who have preceded him. "In a sense," he says, "all poems are about some other poem. You're always riffing on earlier work. As William Matthews has said, 'A poet is never alone. You're always in the company of the beloved lines of your predecessors.'" At the same time, he points out, influence becomes a fascinating dialog across time. "While you are the audience for great predecessors, they're your audience, as well. Influence is a two-way street. For example, Whitman was an important influence on Ginsberg - but because of Ginsberg, we now read Whitman differently."
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