brought to you by Billy Collins

Billy Collins’ poem Shoveling Snow with Buddha has been evocative and essential to my life since Ashley Elisabeth Smith introduced me to Sailing Alone Around the Room in 2006 or 2007.my Billy Collins collection, this morning, 10 Feb 2025Ashley & me, circa 2007my favorite poetry-memorizing perch - end of Ocean Street in Salem, MA, 2007 (photo credit Ashley/wideeyedstudios)same Ocean Street perch, different angle, 17 December 2019: the final day of my first semester - Master of Social Work, Salem State University (the SW building was a block from where we’d lived in Salem all those years before)2011, Beverly, MA: first shoveling sesh in my new polar bear hat (thanks for the hat, big bro Isaac) … photo credit David Draperwith niece Lydia, age 11 months, December 2012, introducing her to Grandma Jean & Grandpa George’s magical garden … one of my last photos from that home in Newtown Square, PAmid-shoveling with David in Beverly, MA, the walls-of-snow winter of 2015David & Birdie the dog, 2017, at the Draper/Todd homestead in Rowley, MAme at the end of a shoveling session: Rowley, MA, 2018fresh snowy hike day, 2022: photo credit Aunt Juanita or Uncle Dirk fresh snowfall in Rangeley, Maine, 3 weeks agoyesterday’s shoveling session, David in the background This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mondaymorningmuse.substack.com/subscribe