Channel Frederator Blog

Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins loves cartoons!

Back in June, Collins wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal called “Inspired by a Bunny Wabbit” which explained how his poetry has been influenced by cartoons.

“…my own poetry would have not developed in the direction it did, for better or worse, were it not for the spell that was cast over me as a boy by Warner Bros. cartoons. The very first time I heard the pulse-quickening blast of the zany theme music by Carl Stalling–enough to bring any American boy to attention–and saw the colorful bull’s-eye emblazoned on the big screen, I was hooked.”

The article includes the poems “Bugs”, “Porky”, “Elmer”, and “Daffy” (from his first collection, Pokerface).

Porky
Happy only
when he is gardening alone
far from conversation
and the terrible stammering
far from Petunia, nag and tease
just resting on a hoe
unembarrassed
as he contemplates
the blue background of his flat world –
a Zen pig.

So, I was going to post about that but there were no cool visuals and every blog post needs cool visuals—it’s a rule! Then I discovered that back in 2007, The Sundance Channel sponsored a series of animated Collin’s poems called Action Poetry. Animators included Julian Grey, Juan Delcan, and Little Fluffy Clouds.

So there ya go! Poetry and cartoons…perfect togther! You can watch a selection of Action Poetry on YouTube or check out all of them at the Action Poetry website.

(And if you’re wondering how someone gets to be poet laureate, read about that here.)

PS: I can’t help but note that the narration has a Jack Handy vibe!

—Anne D. Bernstein