Suzanne

“Dancing Towards Bethlehem

If there is only enough time in the final
minutes of the 20th century for one last dance
I would like to be dancing it slowly with you,
say, in the ballroom of a seaside hotel.
My palm would press into the small of your back

as the past hundred years collapsed into a pile
of mirrors or buttons or frivolous shoes,
just as the floor of the 19th century gave way
and disappeared in a red cloud of brick dust.

There will be no time to order another drink
or worry about what was never said,
not with the orchestra sliding into the sea
and all our attention devoted to humming
whatever it was they were playing. ”
― Billy Collins

“I see all of us reading ourselves away from ourselves,
straining in circles of light to find more light
until the line of words becomes a trail of crumbs
that we follow across a page of fresh snow”
― Billy Collins, Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems

“The mind can be trained to relieve itself on paper.”
― Billy Collins

“I did realize, as do you, how blessed I was to know bookjoy, the private pleasure of savoring text.”
― Pat Mora