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
1. Metaphorically,
and watch him probe his way out,
the speaker does
or walk inside the poem's room not like how
and feel the walls for a light switch.
people "torture" a
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
poem. What do
waving at the author's name on the shore. you think it meansPLLEASE HELP QUICK
But all they want to do
(literally) to
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
“torture” a poem?
"Introduction to
Poetry"
By Billy Collins
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.