She Was Just Seventeen

by Billy Collins, Lee Gurga (Editor)

A fine letter press edition of haiku by Billy Collins, former United States Poet Laureate, edited by Lee Gurga, editor of Modern Haiku Press.

Genres: Poetry

36 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

William James Collins is an American poet who served as the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He was a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York, retiring in 2016. Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004 through 2006. In 2016, Collins was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. As of 2020, he is a teacher in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for Popsugar: A collection of at least 24 poems

With a limited run printed in 2006 and copies going for like, $800 online, I never thought I would read this book. On a whim, I decided to try to get it through interlibrary loan, figuring no library would lend it out, but to my surprise it arrived quickly! My infatuation with Billy Collins has faded a bit since I added it to by TBR back in 2012, but I very much enjoyed this little book all the same. It's a stunning letterpress pamphlet with metallic cover and luxe paper. The poetry is sparse, as good haiku should be, yet it conveys so much. Yay libraries! Yay ILL! Yay haiku!

I like his playful ones best:
If I write spring moon
or mountain, is that
haiku plagiarism?

I count syllables
on my fingers as I walk
past the frog-less pond.

O black fly, get off
my page. You too will die, but
who will read your poems?

[Riley Spellman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an extremely rewarding read.

For one, I struggled to find this collection in the first place. Some Collins collections are rare and hard to come by (definitely interrupting my attempt to read all his works, especially the earlier ones). I managed to get my hands of this one by going thru interlibrary loan via the college I work at (work perk). So that was exciting.

Also, I love short poems. They pack a punch, and the word choice is so stylized and it’s instant gratification. I think poetry is general is for people who love a well-crafted sentence or phrase, and haikus are the epitome of that. So that was nice, and I don’t know many of Collins’s haikus/not his usual form.

Lastly, I wondered at this Beatles reference of a title, and then I realized there’s 17 syllables in a haiku. Made me very happy. Good titles are important.

Anyway, if you can get your hands of this collection, do read it and enjoy it!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

nifty gold & red flexible cover.


We drank many cups
of strong coffee--still
no mention of the money.


Haiku Truck

seventeen
wheeler