Books like The Art of Drowning

If you believe in the mindset that the best poetry arises from suffering, then this might not be the collection for you.Mr. Collins may be a poet, but he's certainly not a starving poet, nor much of a suffering one, either. . . (unless you view all humans as suffering, which has been suggested in urban legends for several millennia now).We all experience life differently, and we all suffer by existing, but Billy Collins just suffers with more. . . sophistication. . . what with his lamb shanks, his champagne, his Strauss sonatas and all. (I've been a poet all my life and I can not help but wonder. . . is it family money? Did he marry a brain surgeon? WTF, Billy? Okay, this is getting judgy. I'll stop).This is a polished suffering, poems related to us from a hammock and the complication of holding a glass of Pinot Noir in one hand, rocking the ropes of the hammock with the other. This compilation is probably best relatable to a 45+ crowd and would probably be best appreciated by a person who has never spent a night on a sidewalk or slept at a hotel with fresh stains on the sheets.But, circumstances aside, Mr. Collins is a poet who plays with language in a way that feels effortless and expresses more with less.His poetry isn't weighted down with unnecessary descriptors, and it has a clean ease that appeals quickly to the senses.He's clearly comfortable as an imagist, and the simpler the topic, the more effective the poem, the best example for me being the description of one perfect meal in the poem Osso Buco.I had several favorites here, but I will end this with my favorite lines from the poem, On Turning Ten: It seems only yesterday I used to believethere was nothing under my skin but light.If you cut me I would shine.But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,I skin my knees. I bleed.Ah. You see? He's never slept on a sidewalk, but he has fallen down on one. It counts as suffering.