On the pro-form side, from a recent interview (
here):
JEFFREY BROWN: Let me ask you, finally, I noticed in some of the more recent work, you're -- you're working more in poetic forms, sonnets, even a play on haiku in one area. Is there a reason for that? Is it the challenge or just wanting the form?
BILLY COLLINS: Well, I think the pleasure of form is that you have a companion with you besides all the poetry you have ever read. You have the form, which...
(CROSSTALK)
JEFFREY BROWN: You're always aware of those poets you have ever read?
BILLY COLLINS: I think the candles of the page are lit by those poets of the past.
You're -- to write poetry is to be very alone, but you always have the company of your influences. But you also have the company of the form itself, which has a kind of consciousness. I mean, the sonnet will simply tell you, that's too many syllables or that's too many lines or that's the wrong place.
So, instead of being alone, you're in dialogue with the form.
JEFFREY BROWN: As opposed to you have to telling yourself, well, it may be enough.
BILLY COLLINS: That's right. Right.
(LAUGHTER)
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