One Poet's Notes: Billy Collins: "Fiftieth Birthday Eve"

POETRY FROM PARADISE VALLEY web page

Poetry From Paradise Valley

Pecan Grove Press has released an anthology of poems, a sampling of works published in Valparaiso Poetry Review during its first decade, from the original 1999-2000 volume to the 2009-2010 volume.

Poetry from Paradise Valley includes a stellar roster of 50 poets. Among the contributors are a former Poet Laureate of the United States, a winner of the Griffin International Prize, two Pulitzer Prize winners, two National Book Award winners, two National Book Critics Circle winners, six finalists for the National Book Award, four finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award, two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, and a few dozen recipients of other honors, such as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, etc.

Readers are encouraged to visit the Poetry from Paradise Valley page at the publisher's web site, where ordering information about the book can be found.

Best Books of Indiana 2011: Finalist. Judges' Citation: "Poetry from Paradise Valley is an excellent anthology that features world-class poetry, including the work of many artists from the Midwest, such as Jared Carter, Annie Finch, David Baker, and Allison Joseph. It’s an eclectic and always interesting collection where poems on similar themes flow into each other. It showcases the highest caliber of U. S. poetry."
—Indiana Center for the Book, Indiana State Library

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Billy Collins: "Fiftieth Birthday Eve"

The VPR Poem of the Week is “Fiftieth Birthday Eve” by Billy Collins, which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2002-2003 issue (Volume IV, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Billy Collins is the author of a number of poetry collections, including She Was Just Seventeen (2006), The Trouble with Poetry (2005), Nine Horses (2002), Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001), Picnic, Lightning (1998), The Art of Drowning (1995), Questions About Angels (1991), The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988), Video Poems (1980), and Pokerface (1977). A recording of Collins reading thirty-three of his poems, The Best Cigarette, was released in 1997, and it is currently available online for free download.

Collins has been the recipient of various honors and awards, including fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. A video of Billy Collins giving a reading upon being named the U.S. Poet Laureate, a post he held for two terms, is available online at the Library of Congress website.

Tuesday of each week “One Poet’s Notes” highlights an exceptional work by a poet selected from the archives of Valparaiso Poetry Review with the recommendation that readers revisit it. Please check the sidebar to view the list of poets and works that have been past “Poem of the Week” selections. Additionally, readers are reminded that VPR pages are best read with the browser font preference in which they were set, 12 pt. Times New Roman, in order to guarantee the stanza alignment and the breaks of longer lines are preserved.

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Tinted Distances by Edward Byrne (Turning Point Books, 2011) ISBN: 978-1936370337.

The poems of Edward Byrne’s Tinted Distances strongly inhabit the world, even as they meditate on how that world is perceived in art and memory.

"Tinted Distances is the achievement of a wise and discerning poet."
—Claudia Emerson

"(Tinted Distances) is a wonderful book, one that readers will return to again and again."
—Sherod Santos

"Tinted Distances is a tender meditation that reveals a careful eye and steady devotion to elegy and ode."
—Dorianne Laux

Tinted Distances is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell's.

Praise for SEEDED LIGHT:

Seeded Light by Edward Byrne (Turning Point Books, 2010)

Best Books of Indiana 2011: Finalist. Judges' Citation: "As the title implies, [Seeded Light] includes many poems where nature plays an important part. An emphasis on human relationships intertwines with natural description to give these poems philosophical and emotional depths. Byrne brings to life an old family farm gone fallow, a visit to an inn where the speaker spent his honeymoon, and Lester Young playing tenor sax." —Indiana Center for the Book, Indiana State Library

" ... is memorial and social, scenic and intimate ..."
—David Baker

" ... offers abundant evidence of a mind’s alertness to the world of nature and to modern urban reality ..."
—Alfred Corn

"... as mysterious and elusive as the permutations of light and shadow for which Byrne has such a canny eye ... subtly virtuosic displays of rhyme, alliteration, and assonance ..."
—Frank Wilson
The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Rich, shaded, and subtle in texture, with second lines often bleeding into the next couplet, these open couplets expand meaning, encouraging the reader to follow."
—Zara Raab
Poemeleon

"... there is always light, from the slimmest of glimmers to full moony illumination, and it is that light, seeded throughout, that we will remember, long after we close the pages and turn off the lamp."
—Barbara Crooker
Rattle

"The liveliness of any art, Byrne implicitly and convincingly argues, depends on union of emotion and intellect, design and accident."
—Lesley Wheeler
The Adirondack Review

“These poems take readers on very human journeys through translucent landscapes where the world is in some way in balance, or in touch, with what we are. They especially lend themselves to meditative reading, and their gift is a sense of deepened understanding of and participation in the natural world.”
—Janet McCann
Yanaguana Literary Review

"What makes Byrne's poems memorable is his control of plain language that serves as a guiding light."
—JL Kato
Tipton Poetry Journal

ORDER NUMBERED & SIGNED COPIES OF SEEDED LIGHT

Seeded Light (Turning Point Books, 2010) is Edward Byrne's sixth collection of poetry. The refined poems of this volume invite the reader into a spacious world . . .

ISBN 978-1934999783, 104 pages, $18.00

Available at Indiebound, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell's Books.

Obtain a unique copy of Seeded Light, numbered & signed by the author, at a 25% discount, plus free shipping. Mail a check (payable to "Edward Byrne") for $13.50 to the following:

Edward Byrne
Department of English
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, IN 46383

Thank you for your interest and support.

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About "One Poet's Notes"

"One Poet's Notes" presents ongoing personal commentary by a poet/editor about contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism, as well as various other issues relating to the literary arts, and it is intended to complement content in the semiannual publications, Valparaiso Poetry Review and Valparaiso Fiction Review.

Collections selected for discussion in this editor's blog include distinguished works published in the last few years by small presses, university presses, or major publishing houses.

In addition, readers are reminded to participate in conversations about VPR contents and to display support for the journal by becoming a fan of Valparaiso Poetry Review or of Valparaiso Fiction Review.

VPR CONTENTS

Valparaiso Poetry Review presents poems, interviews, and essays by new, emerging, or well-known poets, including Sherman Alexie, David Baker, John Balaban, Walter Bargen, Claire Bateman, J.P. Dancing Bear, Jared Carter, Billy Collins, Mark Conway, Peter Cooley, Alfred Corn, Barbara Crooker, Kwame Dawes, Cornelius Eady, Lynnell Edwards, W.D. Ehrhart, Claudia Emerson, Bernardine Evaristo, Patricia Fargnoli, Annie Finch, Daisy Fried, Jeff Friedman, Carol Frost, Brendan Galvin, Reginald Gibbons, David Graham, Jonathan Holden, T.R. Hummer, Colette Inez, Gray Jacobik, Allison Joseph, Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Julia Kasdorf, David Kirby, Dorianne Laux, Laurence Lieberman, Frannie Lindsay, Diane Lockward, Rachel Loden, William Matthews, Walt McDonald, Alicia Ostriker, Elise Paschen, Kevin Pilkington, Stanley Plumly, Rochelle Ratner, Sherod Santos, Margot Schilpp, Vivian Shipley, Beth Simon, Jeffrey Skinner, Floyd Skloot, Dave Smith, Kate Sontag, Barry Spacks, Virgil Suarez, Catherine Tufariello, Brian Turner, Ingrid Wendt, Charles Wright, and many more.

BOOK REVIEWS IN VPR

Valparaiso Poetry Review contains other book reviews and essays on various poets, including Maggie Anderson, David Baker, John Balaban, Linda Bierds, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Boruch, David Bottoms, Jericho Brown, Jared Carter, Sharon Dolin, Rita Dove, Lynnell Edwards, Claudia Emerson, B.H. Fairchild, Patricia Fargnoli, Beth Ann Fennelly, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Jeff Friedman, Carol Frost, Brendan Galvin, Jorie Graham, Zbigniew Herbert, Brenda Hillman, Janet Holmes, Cathy Park Hong, Donald Justice, Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Ilya Kaminsky, Mary Karr, Ted Kooser, Philip Levine, Larry Levis, Rachel Loden, William Matthews, Campbell McGrath, Susan Mitchell, Gregory Orr, Michael Palmer, Sherod Santos, Vivian Shipley, William Stafford, Mark Strand, Brian Turner, Charles Wright, and others. Pages for these can be located in the archives section of VPR.