Horoscopes for the Dead Quotes

“Grave

What do you think of my new glasses
I asked as I stood under a shade tree
before the joined grave of my parents,

and what followed was a long silence
that descended on the rows of the dead
and on the fields and the woods beyond,

one of the one hundred kinds of silence
according to the Chinese belief,
each one distinct from the others,

but the differences being so faint
that only a few special monks
were able to tell them apart.

They make you look very scholarly,
I heard my mother say
once I lay down on the ground

and pressed an ear into the soft grass.
Then I rolled over and pressed
my other ear to the ground,

the ear my father likes to speak into,
but he would say nothing,
and I could not find a silence

among the 100 Chinese silences
that would fit the one that he created
even though I was the one

who had just made up the business
of the 100 Chinese silences -
the Silence of the Night Boat

and the Silence of the Lotus,
cousin to the Silence of the Temple Bell
only deeper and softer, like petals, at its farthest edges.”
― Billy Collins, Horoscopes for the Dead

“My Hero

Just as the hare is zipping across the finish line,
the tortoise has stopped once again
by the roadside,
this time to stick out his neck
and nibble a bit of sweet grass,
unlike the previous time
when he was distracted
by a bee humming in the heart of a wildflower.”
― Billy Collins, Horoscopes for the Dead

“Thank-You Notes

Under the vigilant eye of my mother
I had to demonstrate my best penmanship
By thanking Uncle Gerry for the toy soldiers–

Little red members of the Coldstream Guards–
And thanking Aunt Helen for the pistol and holster,

But now I am writing other notes
Alone at a small cherry desk
with a breeze coming in an open window,

thanking everyone I happen to see
on my long walk to the post office today

and anyone who ever gave me directions
or placed a hand on my shoulder,
or cut my hair or fixed my car.

And while I am at it,
thanks to everyone who happened to die
on the same day that I was born.

Thank you for stepping aside to make room for me,
for giving up you seat,
getting out of the way, to be blunt.

I waited until midnight
on that day in March before I appeared,
all slimy and squinting, in order to leave time

for enough of the living
to drive off a bridge or collapse in a hallway
so that I could enter without causing a stir.

So I am writing now to thank everyone
who drifted off that day
like smoke from a row of blown-out candles–
for giving up your only flame.

One day, I will follow your example
and step politely out of the path
of an oncoming infant, but not right now

with the subtropical sun warming this page
and the wind stirring the fronds of the palmettos,

and me about to begin another note
on my very best stationary
to the ones who are making room today

for the daily host of babies,
descending like bees with their wings and stingers,
ready to get busy with all their earthly joys and tasks.”
― Billy Collins, Horoscopes for the Dead

“would have to say that the crown resting on the head of my”
― Billy Collins, Horoscopes for the Dead

“I was too young then to see that she was staring into the great mystery just as intently as her sisters, her gorgeous, brown and white, philosophic sisters.”
― Billy Collins, Horoscopes for the Dead