[New-Poetry] On turning 10

[Anny Ballardini]

I know I am going to say something I should not say on this list, but there 
are some poems by Billy Collins that I love _this is one of them, and I 
enjoyed in an exceptional way a program on kqed with Collins as a guest, ...

From: "David Graham" <grahamd at ripon.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 6:58 PM


>
>
>
> On 2/15/07 8:51 AM, "Anny Ballardini" <anny.ballardini at tin.it> wrote:
>
>> Re.: your first point, when I was 10 I did not want to reach 30,
> =====================================
>
> On Turning Ten
>
> The whole idea of it makes me feel
> like I'm coming down with something,
> something worse than any stomach ache
> or the headaches I get from reading in bad light--
> a kind of measles of the spirit,
> a mumps of the psyche,
> a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.
>
> You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
> but that is because you have forgotten
> the perfect simplicity of being one
> and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
> But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
> At four I was an Arabian wizard.
> I could make myself invisible
> by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
> At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.
>
> But now I am mostly at the window
> watching the late afternoon light.
> Back then it never fell so solemnly
> against the side of my tree house,
> and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
> as it does today,
> all the dark blue speed drained out of it.
>
> This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
> as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
> It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
> time to turn the first big number.
>
> It seems only yesterday I used to believe
> there was nothing under my skin but light.
> If you cut me I could shine.
> But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
> I skin my knees. I bleed.
>
>               --Billy Collins
>
>
> ====================================================
> David Graham
> grahamd at ripon.edu
> Home Page:
> http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/index.html
> Poetry Library:
> http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/poetrylib.html
> ====================================================