Welcome, Prairie Home Companion fans. Billy Collins’s “The Lanyard” has driven a fair amount of search-engine traffic to this site since I first mentioned him in connection with the Dodge Poetry Fest. As I mentioned yesterday, though, no transcription is on this site, nor any other that I know of; he has not published it in a magazine or book that I know of, either. As I said in an earlier post, if you click on the Incomplete Index in the sidebar, you’ll be able to find some links to his Sunday reading at the Dodge Poetry Festival, which links to some of his other poems online. There is an anecdote about how he wrote the poem, posted sometime last week, featuring Edward Hirsch.
If you enjoy poetry, though, why not click on some of the other links on the sidebar? Elizabeth Spiers and Aaron Haspel both enjoy poetry and discuss it. Pinax and Ravenwolf (under the piscean dreams link on her site) write poetry. Mobius One does, too, but of a more in-your-face type of way. Paul Frankenstein and Ken Goldstein write satirical pieces, mostly about other weblogs in their circle of acquaintance. Have I forgotten anyone?
For the (bewildered?) regular readership of this weblog, “The Lanyard” is a humorous poem that counterpoints all the things the narrator’s mother has given him with what he has given her, a lanyard made at a summer camp. It seems to be tailor-made to be the sentimental favorite of Collins’s œuvre.
At this time, I am ranked 15th highest in page-hits of Radio Userland 8 users for today, outpacing (in no particular order) John Robb, David Watson, Sam Gentile, Paolo V, Ernie the Attorney, and Jenny the Shifted Librarian. [update: eventually 18th as the news aggregators started redirecting traffic to Fraase and Jenny]
5:01:02 PM 
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