As poet laruate of the US Billy Collins has singlehandly turned the direction of contemporary American poetry from psuedo-heavy beat streettalk into a direct and unpretentious poetry that is fun for everyone.

Here is one such from an anthology of short poems compiled by Billy Collins. Not bad, but not the best, but chosen by me because it is about English grammar.


Grammar Lesson

A noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does.
An adjective is what describes the noun.
In "The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"

of and with are prepositions. The's
an article. a can's a noun.
a noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does.

A can can roll- or not. What isn't was
or might be. might meaning not yet known.
"Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"

is present tense. While words like our and us
are pronouns- i.e. it is mouldy,they are icky brown.
A noun's a thing. a verb's the thing it does.

is is a helping verb, It helps because
filled isn't a full verb.Can's what our owns
in "Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"

See? There's almost nothing to it. Just
memorize these rules...or write them down!
A noun's a thing. a verb's the thing it does.
The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.

______________________________________ Steve Kowit