I really loved most of Billy Collins' past work, but I think the last few books have fallen short, including this one. There are some well-written, interesting poems in Water, Water. I just wish there was more editing. I think this book could have been reduced by half and it would have made for a stronger book of poems.

Reading a poem by Billy Collins is quite like receiving a long text message from a close friend who's eager to tell you about this wild thing that happened to them today or about a somewhat profound realization that they've had. His poems made me smile....except for Display Case, which reduced me to tears. Each poem is relatable and unpretentious, each one left me wanting more. I'm already thinking about the people who will be receiving a copy of this as a gift for future holidays.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read the ARC of this book.

Another wonderful book of poetry by Billy Collins ,I look forward to reading a few each day.Every poem is thoughtful entertaining and engaging He is one of my favorite poets.#netgalley #randomhouse

3.5/5

It's hard to rate and review poetry, especially since I don't often read this genre of literature. I still reach out to poetry on certain occasions because it's a wonderful feeling when you find that one poem that resonates deeply with you - I'm happy to have found that one poem within this collection.

This book consists of a collection of 60 poems which were all beautifully written. Most of the poems evoked vivid imagery that often made me think twice about what I just read.

I tried my best to rate each poem I read, resulting in an average rating of 3.5.

My favourite poems from this collection were:
- BC/AD
- Sunday Drive
- Deep Time
- The Cardinal (I loved this one the most!)
- Beginning
- Incipit
- The Brooklyn Dodgers
- Doctor Jesus
- Nonsense
- Drawing a Pineapple

Beautiful poetry - Billy Collins never misses. I love the straightforward style that he has.

Favourites include Lesson Plan, Display Case ("but if you've made a mark / your existence might continue / alphabetically / on a public shelf"). Water, Water ("I don't care if my head looks / like a beach ball from the shore, / as long as the lake water holds me up / and i keep my balance with extended arms"), If/Then, and The Thing.

There are many callbacks and references to other poets, here - a lot of meta-analysis and self-analysis. But the impact for me comes from the simple way he describes both ordinary and extraordinary things that makes the words sing off the page, then settle in your body.

The poetry of Billy Collins always inspires me. I've been reading a few poems each morning, to start my day with beauty, and I love the way his poems have a subtle twist at the end that makes me reconsider what I've just read. They are a window into his life as an artist, and in a way, a sort of prescription for living-- observe and reflect.

I came to this collection rather coincidentally—I loved the cover, noticed that it was being released on my birthday, and remembered enjoying an interview with Billy Collins years ago on NPR. So I read. And reading these poems made me warm. Each poem was funny, decent, fresh. It reminded me of New England, a place I’ve actually never been but only imagined (I can’t explain, I’m afraid, but it’s true!). I’m glad it’s getting released in the fall—I felt rather autumnal. Many will delight with this collection!

Had you asked me last year at this time if I read poetry, my answer would have been no. Being exposed and learning how to appreciate poetry came through a strand I tutored with Classical Conversations. I was introduced to Billy Collins’ work in another book and have continued to seek out more of him. When I saw his newest release available for request on Netgalley, I was quick to click! Many of the poems within these pages are thought provoking. I especially enjoyed “BC/AD” because I can imagine, having been with a class of teenagers, this very conversation.

I was a bit disappointed by the last Collins collection, "Whale Day", which seemed long-winded and heavy handed. I was delighted by this collection, which, at least for me, marked a return to the Collins I most appreciate - observant, pointed, darkly whimsical, and cheerfully edgy.

I loved this collection of poems because it examines everyday moments and imbues them with meaning. I liked the humor sprinkled jn.

Billy Collins has become one of my favorite poets over the last few years. He has a way of approaching poetry so simply and relatability. It's easy to understand and you don't have to struggle through complicated words or overly lyrical thoughts. It's like he is the one writing in all of our journals. Writing about what we think and what we see in everyday life. It just makes his poetry enjoyable.
Thank you Netgalley for this advanced e-book copy of "Water, Water" by Billy Collins.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House for a ARC. For new to poetry and Billy Collins fans it is worth adding to your shelf. Another reviewer put it succinctly Collins reminds us “what a privilege it is to be alive”.
So why 4 stars, not 5? Although Collins says he put aside writing his autobiography, he accomplished it in this text. It is not a book for those not privilege to travel or have leisure to watch a cat by the swimming pool. Call me jealous.
I enjoyed references to poets and artist. I especially appreciated Water, Water,Margins,Lesson Plan,Zero Grannies,Deep Time, Turning the Page and First Typewriter “.
Find a copy November 2024 for yourself and wrap one up for a gift too.

It kind of had the opposite issue of his last collection, where it was a little long-winded. It was as if he crammed in everything that got cut out of 'Musical Tables,' so both books were off balance, instead of just one needing something more/less. I definitely enjoyed this far more than the fragmented style last used, far more depth and feeling to these poems. Billy Collins is still my favorite poet and I'm very thankful to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy! My favorite poem in the collection:

Sunday Drive

What if it turns out
that there is no afterlife.
This may come as a letdown to some,
but the good news is
that the believers of every religion
won't experience the least disappointment
for the simple reason
that they will be dead at that point
and incapable of experiencing anything.

Same goes for the skeptics,
agnostics, and the card-carrying atheists.
No opportunity to smirk or brag
for the same reason mentioned above.
I was thinking about this
on my drive to the beach one Sunday
when I saw a flock of well-dressed people
filing into a clapboard church
under a tall, white steeple.

I did not turn the car around,
pull up to the church door,
and deliver this news from the roof of the car.
No, I drove on with the radio up loud
and the windows down,
content to keep those tidings to myself,
a faithless congregation of one,
now driving much too fast
and just as afraid of heaven as he is of hell.

Sometimes the reading you need most is a good book of poetry that makes you see everyday life in fresh ways. This new volume by Billy Collins serves that purpose on every page. I loved it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing this book, with my honest review below.

I’ve always been a fan of Billy Collin’s approachable poetry and this book of poems was as familiar and appealing as his previous ones. Poetry that would appeal and be understood by most, no matter the walk of life or age is hard to come by Mr. Collins shines with this style and Water, Water strikes the perfect tone for so many.

If/Then, Sunday Drive, and Emily Dickinson in Space were some of my favorites but as seen by other reviews the appeal of these poems is depending on your mood, your experience, the day your choice may vary but you’ll find something that speaks to you no matter who you are.

I loved these poems! This is my second Billy Collins collection and I'm certainly a fan now. I love his writing, it's insightful yet very funny and observant of every day life.

ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕥: 𝐸-𝐵𝑜𝑜𝓀

ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨: 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐄𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐦 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐦, 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬’ 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐞𝐭!

𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝐵𝒾𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒞𝑜𝓁𝓁𝒾𝓃𝓈, 𝑅𝒶𝓃𝒹𝑜𝓂 𝐻𝑜𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝒫𝓊𝒷𝓁𝒾𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔, & 𝒩𝑒𝓉𝒢𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒜𝑅𝒞! 𝒜𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝓅𝒾𝓃𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃.

If Billy Collins has a new poetry collection out, I am there for it. Each one of these poems speaks of his signature style, crafting through humor and a look at life that is unique and unexpected. Collins can take even the simplest moment in life and bring a new light to it.

Billy Collins' collection of poetry Water, Water is 91 pages long. It was the book cover that initially intrigued me, depicting a rabbit racing across a meadow.

I highlighted some of the poems that I found particularly engaging.

Magical Realism

BC/AD

Turning the Pages of A History of Art the Morning After an Argument

Emily Dickinson in Space

Eden

Display Case

Zero Grannies

Margins

Reading the Guest Book


Margins

I cannot thank you enough

so I will thank you insufficiently,

for the book full of reproductions

of the whimsical drawings found

in the margins of medieval manuscripts,

which you gave me the last time we met for ice cream.

I love turning the colorful pages

and seeing the tiny scribal adornments,

especially of animals still around today ––

the robin, the frog, the spoonbill, and the hen,

not to mention the goose, the fox, and the partridge,

all surviving in our meadows, swamps, and barnyards.

I also enjoyed the half-boy blowing a horn

and the four monks rowing a rowboat,

but I would really like to meet the guy

who distracted himself one morning

early in the thirteenth century

from the arduous job of copying the Alphonso Psalter

by drawing a monkey doing a handstand

on the back of a comely mermaid

as she is offering a breast to a nursing baby.

I'd like to buy that man a few flagons

and a slice of venison to chew on

as we got to know one another in his favorite pub.

He would introduce me to his friends,

a ploughman, a merchant, and a wayward prioress,

and I would refrain from telling him

about motion pictures and moon landings.

After a while, light would leave the windows

and the ruddy publican would call the time.

Then outside under the sign, as we said goodbye

I would add "But in the end, of course,

life is not all hand-stand monkeys

and comely nursing mermaids."

"It isn't?!" he would shoot back with a booming laugh,

which would leave me nonplussed as I walked back.

past printing presses, guillontines, microscopes,

locomotives, radios, and ice cream parlors,

all the way up to the encircling arms of the present.

My mind can visually picture the manuscript drawings and the meeting between the two gentlemen. It would have been so hard to keep future events a secret. In the last stanza, the poet wraps up the poem beautifully as he journeys back to the present.

My style was definitely not reflected in some of the poems in the book, but I think everyone can find that in any collection of poems. I think Collins' poems capture life's paradoxes and everyday experiences. He captures both common and quite unusual events in his poems, such as children learning their ABCs and an astronaut reading Emily Dickinson in space. Water, Water is a book I enjoyed reading and I am sure you will as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!

Billy Collins’s "Water, Water" is a well-worn sweater of a poetry collection, offering comfort in its unadorned warm-heartedness.

The collection is decidedly unambitious, which gradually begins to feel like its own kind of ambition. These poems celebrate poetry through its limitations, affectionately referencing great poets while seeming to suggest that the best thing someone could do is put down the book, go for a walk, and call a loved one. Each line exists to remind the reader that a line can only go so far. While it sounds like this could be treacly, it’s not. Every turn is like rounding the corner and bumping into a friend you haven’t seen in a while—nothing is as pleasantly surprising as familiarity.

Collins uses excitedly grounded language, eschewing abstractions that might make poems inaccessible. Across the book, there are moments of clarifying, elemental crisis, such as fires and floods, but even these serve as a form of catharsis, suggesting that one’s important memories and relationships would emerge stronger. The poet notes, fairly directly, the way that sharing an event transforms it into something meaningful, and this could be viewed as the poetics of the book as a whole—these pieces become poems because they are meant to be experienced together, and the resulting warmth is so invitational that it makes the collection feel distinctive in its appeal towards universality.

It feels appropriate that the collection’s title is a reference to something so essential for life—"Water, Water"—because Collins constantly leads readers to the essence of what a privilege it is to be alive. I can't think of a more worthwhile subject for a book.