The Apple That Astonished Paris

Imagine Smokey the Bear walking through the forest carrying a red gasoline can and a box of kitchen matches, or Frankenstein absent-mindedly tapping the bolts on his neck as he composes an elegy. You have just imagined the world of Billy Collins.

Entrance can be gained to this world in THE APPLE THAT ASTONISHED PARIS, a collection of poems by Billy Collins published in June 1988 by the University of Arkansas Press.

Collins' irreverent images, such as Death stopping the car to get his scythe out of the trunk, strike at the deepest concerns of the human heart and mind in ways as delightful as they are provocative.