Army of one

Last night I went on a long excursion to Appleton, WI. The ride took around 4 hours, and some coffee. The point of my trip was to see a poet I really enjoy and have posted his poems on here before: Billy Collins. He read numerous poems including a wonderful selection of hilarious haikus. Below are the pictures I took there.

Billy Collins explaining his poems.

He had the audience cracking up.

I was surprised to see no statue of Jesus (as) in there. Only the really nice organ.

Outside view of the church.

There he is signing books. I got two books signed on behalf of my school. The picture quality is bad because I was shaking after meeting him. Not because he's so great or anything, but only because I'm a spaaz.

Lastly some deer I saw by the edge of the road.

She's looking at me.

National Poetry Month

The Country
by Billy Collins

I wondered about you
when you told me never to leave
a box of wooden, strike-anywhere matches
lying around the house because the mice

might get into them and start a fire.
But your face was absolutely straight
when you twisted the lid down on the round tin
where the matches, you said, are always stowed.

Who could sleep that night?
Who could whisk away the thought
of the one unlikely mouse
padding along a cold water pipe

behind the floral wallpaper
gripping a single wooden match
between the needles of his teeth?
Who could not see him rounding a corner,

the blue tip scratching against a rough-hewn beam,
the sudden flare, and the creature
for one bright, shining moment
suddenly thrust ahead of his time -

now a fire-starter, now a torchbearer
in a forgotten ritual, little brown druid
illuminating some ancient night.
Who could fail to notice,

lit up in the blazing insulation,
the tiny looks of wonderment on the faces
of his fellow mice, onetime inhabitants
of what once was your house in the country?