text: Billy Collins's original voice is delightfully accessible, often blending comedy and solemnity in one poem, and always with something new to say. The playful tone of these poems can be misleading; whether he is writing about eating a good plate of Osso Bucco or his favorite museum rooms, there is  always a pathos lingering in the silence after the last line. Most  relieving is the absence of pretentiousness or haughty language. This is  simply, as Robert Bly writes in his introduction to the best American poems  of 1999, Collins's skillful ability to "bring the soul up close to the  thing" in every poem. Books such as "The Art of Drowning"  threaten to change the face and purpose of poetry in the 21st century.  Let's hope there is plenty more to come from Billy Collins
  