First published 2025
Billy Collins moves through moments both ordinary and strange with his characteristic eye for detail. A cat figures out how to drink from a swimming pool. An astronaut floats in space reciting Emily Dickinson. Collins watches these scenes unfold with the same attention he brings to grief in a classroom and an atheist who fears both heaven and hell equally. He notices what disappears as much as what remains visible. Objects reveal themselves through the spaces they leave behind. In one poem, a voice observes that everything in this difficult world seems built to vanish. Collins balances light against the shadows that move at its borders. He writes about pleasure and pain with equal care. Joy appears alongside irony in his observations of daily life. The poems start clear and drift toward mystery.
Genres: american-fiction, contemporary, poetry, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, slice-of-life
144 pages · Paperback · Picador