Introduction to Poetry

by Billy Collins

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.

I am in love with this poem. It’s an interesting thought to be applied to art as well. I’ve totally been there, frustrated from not being able to derive a simple meaning from a piece that seems to want to say something. Maybe this will remind me that some things are better left enjoyed without the search for a concrete meaning.