Read Horoscopes for the Dead Online
Authors: Billy Collins
Horoscopes for the Dead (6 page)
Not even that dark cormorant
perched on the
No Wake
sign,
his narrow head raised
as if he were looking over something,
not even that inquisitive little fellow
could bring me to write another word.
The author is grateful to the editors of the following journals, where some of these poems first appeared:
The Atlantic:
“Cemetery Ride,” “Grave”
Boulevard:
“After I Heard You Were Gone,” “Florida”
Cimarron Review:
“Two Creatures”
Crazyhorse:
“Drawing You from Memory,” “Thieves”
Five Points:
“Genesis,” “Riverside, California,” “The Meatball Department”
The Gettysburg Review:
“Gold”
Gulf Coast:
“Bread and Butter”
Knockout:
“Night and Day”
London Review of Books:
“The Guest,” “Lakeside”
The New Yorker:
“Table Talk”
Oxford American:
“The Flâneur”
The Paris Review:
“Returning the Pencil to Its Tray”
PEN America 12: Correspondences:
“Horoscopes for the Dead”
Poetry:
“The Chairs That No One Sits In,” “Her,” “Memorizing ‘The Sun Rising’ by John Donne”
Poetry East:
“Palermo”
Poetry Review
(U.K.): “Silhouette”
Open City:
“What She Said,” “Thank-You Notes”
Oranges & Sardines:
“Revision”
Real Simple:
“The Straightener”
Slate:
“The Symbol”
The Southampton Review:
“Hangover,” “My Unborn Children,” “Girl,” “Poetry Workshop Held in a Former Cigar Factory in Key West”
The Southern Review:
“A Question About Birds”
Subtropics:
“As Usual,” “Delivery”
Superstition Review:
“My Hero”
Tundra:
“Hell”
“Grave” was selected by Amy Gerstler to appear in
Best American Poetry 2010
(Scribner) and was also included in
Best Spiritual Writing 2011
, edited by Philip Zaleski (Penguin).
I am grateful to many people at Random House, especially David Ebershoff, whose steady editorial hand and abiding enthusiasm made this book a reality. Thanks also to Chris Calhoun for his support and our uplifting friendship, and to George Green, who assigned most of these poems a passing grade.
About the Author
Billy Collins is the author of nine collections of poetry, including
Ballistics, The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems, Nine Horses, Sailing Alone Around the Room, Questions About Angels, The Apple That Astonished Paris, The Art of Drowning
, and
Picnic, Lightning
. He is also the editor of
Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry; 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day;
and
Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds
. A distinguished professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York, he served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003 and Poet Laureate of New York State from 2004 to 2006.