The poem above is an answer to Billy Collins' poem "You, Reader".

Billy Collins is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He's also a Professor. At the moment he's 81.

The poem below is the one that inspired me:

I wonder how you are going to feel
when you find out
that I wrote this instead of you,

that it was I who got up early
to sit in the kitchen
and mention with a pen

the rain-soaked windows,
the ivy wallpaper,
and the goldfish circling in its bowl.

Go ahead and turn aside,
bite your lip and tear out the page,
but, listen�¢?? it was just a matter of time

before one of us happened
to notice the unlit candles
and the clock humming on the wall.

Plus, nothing happened that morning�¢??
a song on the radio,
a car whistling along the road outside�¢??

and I was only thinking
about the shakers of salt and pepper
that were standing side by side on a place mat.

I wondered if they had become friends
after all these years
or if they were still strangers to one another

like you and I
who manage to be known and unknown
to each other at the same time�¢??

me at this table with a bowl of pears,
you leaning in a doorway somewhere
near some blue hydrangeas, reading this.

�¢??You, Reader,�¢?? by Billy Collins from The Trouble with Poetry (Random House)

P.S 1 I'd forgotten his wry sense of humour
P.S 2 Masterclass doesn't pay me for the free advertising.

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