Picnic, Lightning [Hardcover]

Billy Collins (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In these playful, conversational poems, Billy Collins immerses us in the minutiae of a life--cow viewing, parsley chopping, "buzzing around on espresso"--and restores a sense of wonder. In a voice half confessional, half avuncular, he takes us by the hand and shares his deepest secrets. Whether shoveling snow with the Buddha, releasing Emily Dickinson from her corsets, spoofing Auden and Wordsworth, or putting words in the mouths of Victoria's Secret models ("So what if I am wearing nothing / but this stretch panne velvet bodysuit ... Do you have a problem with that?!"), Collins is a pure delight. In one of several poems in which jazz figures prominently, he amusingly considers well-known but ne'er-acknowledged facial expressions such as "the languorous droop," "pained concentration," and "existential bemusement." Similarly, in "Marginalia" he caps off a list of scribblings with a pointed request for all to step forward who "have managed to graduate from college / without ever having written 'Man vs. Nature'" in a margin.

Though there is plenty to make us laugh, Collins is more than a mere comic genius. On the contrary, he balances the ribald with the poignant, the over-the-top with the serenely beautiful:

And the soul is up on the roof
in her nightdress, straddling the ridge,
singing a song about the wildness of the sea
until the first rip of pink appears in the sky.
Then, they all will return to the sleeping body
the way a flock of birds settles back into a tree...

In the opening poem ("A Portrait of the Reader with a Bowl of Cereal"), Collins defies William Butler Yeats's advice to "never speak directly, / as to someone at the breakfast table." Instead, he promises to "lean forward, / elbows on the table, / with something to tell you." One hundred pages later, we thank him for a promise kept. --Martha Silano --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From The New Yorker

What Collins does best is turn an apparently simple phrase into a numinous moment.... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 90 pages
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press; 1 edition (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822940663
• ISBN-13: 978-0822940661
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #834,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wednesday, April 19, 2000

By 

Jill Brocksmith (Madison Heights, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Picnic, Lightning (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Picnic, Lightning was the first book of Billy Collins' that I read. I bought it because I flipped open the book to "buzzing around the house on espresso" and that Victoria's Secret poem. After I took the book home and read it a few times, I realized how much I liked Collins' poetry for its kindness. There certainly is the kind of poetry which freezes a moment in your life and then breaks it. However, my thirst for poetry requires a lot of variation--I can't always be on some lyric cusp. Picnic, Lightning has enough depth to encourage me and enough lightness to hold my everyday, and a care for words that holds my interest. Plus it's funny. This book holds down a unique place in my life. Perhaps this is no dark tunnel and crashing entry back into the light, but it's Wednesday (again) and I need something between lunch and dinner that makes sense.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars phenomenal, September 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Picnic, Lightning (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

I had the privilege of hearing Billy Collins read this summer and it confirmed for me that he is a phenomenal poet with the gift of seeing the ordinary moment as a microcosm of life and the world. And he does it with great humor. If you don't normally read poetry or are looking for an introduction to the best of contemporary poetry, this is the book to read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sumptuous!, December 6, 2002

By 

Manoj Nagulapally (Hanover, NH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Picnic, Lightning (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

This volume of poetry is one of Billy Collins' most enjoyable works. The poems are filled with wit and charm in equal measure. They abound in simple epiphanies about everyday events showing Collins' keen intellect. If someone can bring a simple event like browsing a Victoria's Secret catalogue to life, that someone is definitely special. Read this book and you will be carried away into Collins' world. You wouldn't want to return to the real one after that.