Slog - Comments on Ain't I a Stinker? http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker Don't get me wrong: just this weekend, I was discussing the timeless joy of Loony Tunes cartoons. The one where Bugs Bunny takes on the opera singer is second in my heart only to the one where he goes bullfighting. Or maybe "What's Opera, Doc?" is my favorite of all time. But Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States, has a story in the Wall Street Journal about how inspired he has been by those early Warner Brothers cartoons: Bugs would do the impossible by jumping out of the frame and landing on the drawing board of the... Copyright 2008 Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:00:00 -0800 Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:41:22 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by inkweary The greatest threat to poetry today is the belief that everybody has something to say, anybody can write and that there are no rules. Good poetry is as difficult to write as it is rare.

]]> inkweary http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker#c1062916 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker#c1062916 Books Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:35:38 -0800 Comment by MvB In fairness to Collins, the poems are from a 1977 collection. They are not good. But neither was 1977. A bit of a let-down after the excitement of the Bicentennial.

]]> MvB http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker#c1062990 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker#c1062990 Books Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:44:30 -0800 Comment by Michael I am dismayed that a man who would call himself "Billy" would ever become the poet laureate. When me and my friends read his name, we like to say it as read in this poem we wrote. Enjoy.


Religion

I imagine Jesus in a stripclub
bald but bearding
seated amongst the dispossessed
with a wad of twenties nonetheless.

A man named Paul sits beside him
and asks for a cigarette.

"Hey. Didn't we go to High School?"

"... Yeah. But that was a long time ago."

"Billy?"

]]> Michael http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker#c1063074 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker#c1063074 Books Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:02:12 -0800 Comment by Grant Cogswell There is nothing worse than Billy Collins. Coldplay, John McCain, Oliver Stone, being eaten alive by nutrias, none of this comes close. He is unsurpassed in his awfulness.

]]> Grant Cogswell http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker#c1063193 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker#c1063193 Books Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:47:01 -0800 Comment by Free Lunch The fact that George Bush Jr. chose him as our country's poet laureate says plenty.

]]> Free Lunch http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker#c1063226 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/aint_i_a_stinker#c1063226 Books Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:41:22 -0800