Billy Collins – Introduction to Poetry Lyrics
I ask them to take a poem
And hold it up to the light
Like a color slide
Or press an ear against its hive
I say drop a mouse into a poem
And watch him probe his way out
Or walk inside the poem's room
And feel the walls for a light switch
I want them to waterski
Across the surface of a poem
Waving at the author's name on the shore
But all they want to do
Is tie the poem to a chair with rope
And torture a confession out of it
They begin beating it with a hose
To find out what it really means
And hold it up to the light
Like a color slide
Or press an ear against its hive
I say drop a mouse into a poem
And watch him probe his way out
Or walk inside the poem's room
And feel the walls for a light switch
I want them to waterski
Across the surface of a poem
Waving at the author's name on the shore
But all they want to do
Is tie the poem to a chair with rope
And torture a confession out of it
They begin beating it with a hose
To find out what it really means
