Walking Across the Atlantic
I wait for the holiday crowd to clear the beach
before stepping onto the first wave.
Soon I am walking across the Atlantic
thinking about Spain,
checking for whales, waterspouts.
I feel the water holding up my shifting weight.
Tonight I will sleep on its rocking surface.
But for now I try to imagine what this must look like to the fish below,
the bottoms of my feet appearing, disappearing.
Billy Collins, US Poet Laureate 2001-2003
A poet allows us to see. Billy Collins' images are so visual, so alive, that I can look up and see his footprints landing on the water. I see the bottoms of his feet from the eyes of a fish, its gills moving oxygen from water to lungs.
In order for Billy Collins to have achieved the notoriety of beloved poet, of best selling poet, of Poet Laureate, someone first had to see him.
The person who saw Billy Collins' talents was Miller Williams, director of the University of Arkansas Press. Mr. Collins had submitted about forty-five poems to Williams. Miller Williams returned the poems, but first paper clipped about twenty-five poems together with an explanation. If Collins could write another twenty-five poems as good as the paper-clipped poems, he would be his publisher.
Collins writes, "I was on fire with determination..." to write good poetry. And as they say, the rest is history.
There is something important in this exchange between publisher and poet. The poet was born from the publisher's ability to see the magnificence in half his work. He did not tear down or disparage the subpar other half of his words. He found the best in the bundle and used the best to encourage.
If only we were to use this strategy of love and encouragement in our own human connections and encounters.
It is what Deb and I do with our students. It is delicious to read student writing and find magnificent phrases or epiphanies, or a chain of alliterations that melt like soft campfire marshmallow in my mouth. It is a joy to write comments on students' papers such as: Fantastic premise, or Your title made me laugh.
Write like this is what our comments encourage, and students begin to write their better ideas. Slowly the semi-colons are used correctly, spelling improves, and thoughts are more distilled.
This thinking, this type of exchange, sets a precedent or a pattern in all of our encounters.
It is a joy to find and acknowledge the good in everything, in everyone.
Comments