USN Students Share Spotlight with Billy Collins

by Freya Sachs

Amidst the Nashville Public Library's celebration of Billy Collins, three USN students had the opportunity to meet the poet himself because they were finalists in the teen poetry contest. We've included the winning poem in this story (the two USN finalists' are in the Downloads channel).
Before the November 13 public reading and lecture, finalists Maddie Cron, Mattis Deutch, and Carson Thomas had the opportunity to meet and talk with Billy Collins, Mayor Karl Dean, the other finalist poets, and administrators from the library. At the breakfast, the winner in each age group was announced.

Senior Mattis Deutch's poem was selected as the winner in the 16-18 category; he won an iPad. The finalists and winners were recognized and announced at the public lecture as well. Billy Collins read poems from many of his books, talked about his writing process, and discussed how to define poetry.

Platonic

by Mattis Deutch

The other day I learned the difference

between romantic love and Platonic love.

I was standing by a printer and thinking,

I would enjoy watching this printer more

if you were here, watching it with me.

But not that much more.

Not so much more that the printer is subsumed into our joy in each other like a screwdriver

swallowed by a tree,

as it should be if I loved you like Plato loved his girlfriend,

or those boys of his.

I just would have liked to share

this printer with you.

(It was printing something good, I could tell.)


So let me just say:

I love your hair.

I love the way you keep a cracker on your knee

while eating it thoughtfully, like it was a poem.

I love the way you blow your nose, unashamed

and easy and truthful, also like a poem should be.

I love the way you tell a story about something you did earlier,

that didn’t make sense then and doesn’t now,

and then explain your motivations,

I love the way you argue, as if it’s obvious you’re right,

I love the way you try to pick a lock without knowing how,

like a poem should.

I love all this,

Platonically.

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More USN News

List of 3 news stories.

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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.