> To illustrate this, my professor read us a very good poem addressing this... in the poem, the speaker directs people to hold a poem up to the light and peer through it, to drop a mouse into a poem and see where it leads, to waterski on the surface of a poem and wave at the author's name on the shore - but then laments that all people seem to do is tie a poem to a chair and beat it in order to extract a confession from it. Funny, but also apt. When I get a chance, I'll see if I can find that poem online and post a link.

I heard on NPR last night that the creator of this poem, Billy Collins, was recently named US Poet Laureate. It looks like it was way back in June, though.

I wouldn't have recognized the name at all, except for that wonderful poem's mention here.