Do you subscribe to George Bilgere’s poem-a-day newsletter? I’m a big fan of Bilgere’s poetry. I even wrote a poem after hearing him speak in 2012. (Gads, that’s a long time ago now…and the link will probably tell you that Poetrepository is not a secure site. I won’t be offended if you don’t click through.)
Back to the newsletter. I’m a big fan of George Bilgere’s poetry, and, as it turns out, I quite like most every poem he chooses for his newsletter. His small musing that comes with each poem often makes me chuckle and sometimes makes me go back to the poem and read again.
Today, George wrote, “Sometimes you just feel like reading a Billy Collins poem, in the same way that sometimes it’s nice to take a walk in the woods on a glorious fall day.” And he was right. May we all live with our heart
“propped up
in a field on its tripod,
ready for the next arrow.“
.
Aimless Love
by Billy Collins
This morning as I walked along the lake shore,
I fell in love with a wren
and later in the day with a mouse
the cat had dropped under the dining room table.
In the shadows of an autumn evening,
I fell for a seamstress
still at her machine in the tailor’s window,
and later for a bowl of broth,
steam rising like smoke from a naval battle.
This is the best kind of love, I thought,
without recompense, without gifts,
or unkind words, without suspicion,
or silence on the telephone.
The rest of the poem is here.
Patricia has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Reverie.
A(nother) Year of Reading 
Bilgere’s daily post is one of three must-reads for me to start each day. I wrote a poem this summer in response to one of his. I sent it to him and he actually responded right away.
And yes, I could sit with this Billy Collins musing all day. A life list of simple praise! Thanks for sharing this, Mary Lee.
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From Heidi (thwarted by WordPress, sent in an email): That is just what it’s like.
To be pierced again and again by the arrow of aimless, pointed love, to be amazed again and again.
And now I realize why some might prefer not to be amazed and pierced, can imagine how it might be easier not to notice it all, not to set up your tripod day after day.
Thank you.
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Ahhhh. The best kind of love! : )
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One of my favorites from Billy Collins! It inspired a poem about falling in love with my Christmas candle. I will look up George Bilgere.
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If you like Billy Collins, you’re almost sure to like Bilgere!
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Another Bilgere fan here, who looks forward to his newsletter every day. Thanks for the Billy Collins fix. He always gets it just right.
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The truest kind of love, given without any expectation.
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I don’t subscribe. I already have such a full inbox of poetry, I’m not sure I can handle another one. I love this aimless love poem from Billy Collins. We are having a most perfect fall day today (finally), so I am feeling the love.
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I don’t always read all the others I subscribe to, but I ALWAYS read Bilgere’s. That’s the best recommendation I can give.
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Thanks for carrying us away for a bit via Billy Collins, taking a few breaths, ah…
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I don’t know the Bilgere daily letter, will look for it now! In the NY Times’s morning opening, they wrote about gratitude, and just as Collins wrote, those things that matter, then tracing them back to how one got to them, intriguing message. I picked up another anthology, says “poems for hard times” and find Collins is in there, too, no surprise. Thanks for another special poem by Collins, Mary Lee. I did click on your older link, and nothing came up, FYI.
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Not sure why that link doesn’t work at all for you…sorry!
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I don’t follow Bilgere’s daily. Someday, I might. I have so many I try to keep up with. This Billy Collins poem is a delight. I love how it punctuates my reading of Poetry Friday posts with the intensity of love and casual moving on from item to item to that final heart on a tripod waiting for the next arrow. How he gets my attention without me realizing just how much every stinkin’ time…it amuses me.
Thanks for this poem. I love it.
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Thank you for this introduction to a new daily poetry newsletter. I have signed up. I want to wander that forest.
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That’s an urban forest within walking distance from our house. One path through the forest spits me out in a cemetery. Both are calming places where I can catch my breath and just BE.
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Mary Lee, I do get the newsletters from George. It’s one of the few emails I open regularly! I agree. I always enjoy the poems and his brief comments. This one was a treasure. Aimless love, to be sure. Even the soap in the soap dish. I love that positivity and joy in living that comes through his poem. Thanks for sharing it.
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Yes, I get the Poetry Town newsletter and when I read, “Sometimes you just feel like reading a Billy Collins poem…” I thought, “Yup, George. Nailed it again.”
🙂
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Wonderful Mary Lee, I am so empty a vessel. I need to know the George Bilgere of Poetry Town. Also while I’ve read collections of Billy Collins, such as BALLISTIC, I’m not at all as familiar with his exquisiteness as I should be. Appreciations for these visits.
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