Poetry 180 A Turning Back to Poetry is a collection of contemporary poems that have been selected by a former United States Poet Laureate, Billy Collins. I read his book of poetry Sailing Alone Around the Room and I loved it. I decided to read this book because the poems are written by people that I am not familiar with. I am not a poetry expert but I have been reading more and more of it lately. There isn’t a certain type of poetry I enjoy more than others so anything catches my fancy. This collection does not disappoint. The poems are not overly complicated so you will not be sitting there shaking your head because you can’t understand anything. While reading/listening to them, I have said “wow”: I have gasped: I have enjoyed them: I have laughed: I have teared up: I have loved some more than others: I have appreciated all of them.
My suggestions for reading this book:
- Read the introduction even if you do not like reading introductions.
- If there is someone that is willing to read them with you, get together and take turns reading the poems out loud to each other.
- My mom and I are reading the book together. We read the author’s name and then the title before we start reading them out loud to each other.
- Only choose about 4-5 poems in one day and read each of them out loud twice.
- Read the mini biographies of each author that are in the back of the book.
- Don’t put pressure on yourself to finish all of them but do try to read a good amount of them.
Happy Reading!
Book It Babe 