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90+ Titles Appropriated from Poetry 180
(Hosted by Billy Collins)

One morning walking home through the meadow –

the green one over there – God said yes

to me and the heat and the blue willow

and the hard shadows and the red wing.

How bright it was: this unconditional day,

this moment, the summer I was sixteen.

*

The courtesy of the blind:

the Cape May Warbler who flew against my window.

She didn’t mean to do it.

*

You’re so beautiful it’s starting to rain:

a love song for my daughter

on a summer day.

*

Advice from the experts:

Change a frog into a prince.

Offer gratitude to old teachers.

Tell your Mother there will be no grandkids in her future.

*

I’ve been known to help a monkey cross

the river, toast the Baltimore Oriole,

feed the swan at Edgewater Park.

It took all my energy.

*

The poetry of bad weather:

a herd of buffalo crossing the Missouri

on ice, the last wolf, bat, snow: gone.

The dress rehearsal for the end and the beginning.

*

Because you left me a handful of daffodils,

the blue bowl, my father’s hats,

the family photo around the Xmas tree,

I listen to immortality.

*

Sentimental moment or why did the baguette cross the road?

To mentor the bagel and biscuit.

*

Soccer moms:

morning swim

Tuesday 9:00 a.m.,

coffee in the afternoon,

then the ode to dirt.

*

Ladies and gentlemen in outer space:

after years of distances,

thanks for remembering us

on your forgotten planet.

Notice proof of life.

*

The hymn of a fat woman:

decades of exotic treats,

slumnights in loud music halls,

stammering before she died,

Do you love me?

*

Walking to Oak-Head Pond,

and thinking of the ponds

I will visit in the next days and weeks:

entrance to summer happiness.

What would I do otherwise?

*

Any advice for those of us just starting out?

Question numbers, the death of Santa Claus,

and the partial explanation of the good life.

When death comes, fast break toward clouds

and the small comfort of the moon.