This is the second time this year I’ve chosen a poem by Billy Collins [below] but I make no apology. He had me by the second stanza [below], I was ten again having already been a champion showjumper and a soldier.
[photo: poetryfoundation.org]
‘On Turning Ten’
… At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
By drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.
I defy you to read this poem, and not remember when you also were ten.
‘Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes‘ by Billy Collins [UK: Picador]
Read these other excerpts and find a new poet to love:-
‘Elegy’ by Carol Ann Duffy
‘Cloughton Wyke I’ by John Wedgwood Clarke
‘Poems’ by Ruth Stone
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
A #poem to read in the bath: ‘On Turning Ten’ by Billy Collins via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1YS
sandra danby 