MUSICAL TABLES Poems

Billy Collins embraces extreme compression in this collection of very short poems. Some of them are worthy of Henny Youngman; others are potentially heartbreaking if you pause the audiobook to think about them. Most of the poems are under 25 words. Even more than with most audio poetry collections, this one rewards the pause for reflection, since without it you are already into the next poem. Collins is a good narrator of his own work, and his afterword, in which he discusses why he wrote these poems and gives some examples of his favorite very short poems, illuminates the collection. The sheer number of poems also winds up giving us a portrait of the author's interests and concerns at this stage of his life. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2022]