“Design” originally appeared in Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins, © 2001. Poet Laureate (2001–2003) and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This is the sun with its glittering spokesīilly Collins is a Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute at Rollins College and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. And that is why, as we discover in the final line, the poet coats his table with salt, not flour or sugar. He is childless, without siblings, and there is only death in the family. The speaker is emphatically alone with no one to speak to but ghosts, passing birds and a crack in the wall. As this circle-game is being played, a melancholy self-portrait emerges. The poem moves quickly line-by-line through a series of associations involving variations on the circle: cycle, wheel, ring, sun and moon. It’s a primitive act as well, given the speculation that human culture began when someone drew something in the sand with a stick.
Few can resist running a finger over a steamy bathroom mirror or the dusty hood of a car. Introduction to Poetry l ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive.
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