Book Review: Horoscopes for the Dead by Billy Collins

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Horoscopes for the Dead by Billy Collins
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I've been on a poetry kick lately which has lead me to a discovery: I detest most modern poetry. While I admittedly prefer rhyming lyrical poetry to the conversational style that is currently popular, I enjoy it all in moderation.

What I don't like is that poetry such as this seems to have no point. It discusses very banal subjects in a very bland way. I felt like Billy Collins was simply collecting random thoughts in short bursts rather than waxing poetic. I guess this would be fine as well if those random thoughts had something interesting about them but overall I didn't feel a connection with anything in this collection of poetry.

If this book is meant to represent the best of modern American poetry, then I think I will stick with the classics. Of course I am being dramatic because there are some contemporary poets that create beautiful and fascinating work (I am currently enjoying Leigh Stein's collection 'Dispatch from the future' and Sarah Kay is quite incredible) but I can't appreciate the stuff in this book at all.

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