The dead are always looking down on us, they say,
while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,
they are looking down through the glass bottom boats of heaven
as they row themselves slowly through eternity.
They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,
and when we lie down in a field or on a couch,
drugged perhaps by the hum of a long afternoon,
they think we are looking back at them,
which makes them lift their oars and fall silent
and wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes.
August 4, 2009 at 11:34 am
Each time I read Billy Collins’ “The Dead,” I feel my grandmothers with me, just out of sight. lfs
December 4, 2010 at 9:47 am
Sorry to disappoint you but Mr. Collins is mocking those who believe in God.
January 29, 2014 at 7:56 pm
why do you feel that way..I believe in God and found it peaceful and reassuring that one day I will be with all my departed friend and family
December 4, 2010 at 11:55 am
Mocking? Is he?
Or are you projecting your own disbelief unto his words, which might be ambiguous?
April 24, 2011 at 11:15 pm
IF he is a good poet (and I sincerely believe him to be), what he intends to communicate via poetry is not nearly as important as how it is communicated. Even if Mr. Collins is Mocking those who believe in God, it is okay, even desired, that many different readers would come to many different conclusions. Mr. Collins himself is emphatically opposed to the idea that only one meaning may be derived from any given poem. If “The Dead” makes one reader reminisce about passed relatives, or another imagine a perfect summer afternoon (as it does when I read it), then the poet’s primary objective is completed. The writer of poetry’s primary goal is to get a reader to “take a journey through his or her own mind,” as another poet once claimed. Any other view is limiting and shallow. Perhaps Ms. Susan should read Mr. Collins’s “Introduction to Poetry” as an illustration of this point.
April 24, 2011 at 11:21 pm
My gravatar link is not working correctly. It should direct you to http://www.poorscribbler.wordpress.com
April 25, 2011 at 7:53 am
Thank you scribbler