Billy Collins - Mar 29, Iyengar II & I

After a long-awaited retreat to Mexico, teaching with Melissa Spamer. Hoping to soften the blow for all who couldn’t come on this especially magical trip. I’ve had that experience of feeling inept and holding coins out to a cashier.

Safe Travels

Every time Gulliver travels

into another chapter of Gulliver's Travels

I marvel at how well traveled he is

despite his incurable gullibility.

I don t enjoy traveling anymore

because, for instance,

I still don't know the difference

between a bloke and a chap.

And I'm embarrassed whenever

I have to hold out a palm

of loose coins to a cashier

as if I were feeding a pigeon in a park.

Like Proust, I see only trouble

in store if I leave my room,

which is not lined with cork,

only sheets of wallpaper

featuring orange flowers

and little green vines.

Of course, anytime I want

I can travel m my imagination

but only as far as Toronto,

where some graduate students

with goatees and snoods

are translating my poems into Canadian.