Heaven brought down to Keystone College

It was an amazing afternoon and evening bathing in the words of two absolutely brilliant people!

Dava Sobel brought the heavens down to the campus of Keystone College for us when she described the creation of her book The Planets. I was fascinated with how she came to the notion of providing a rich narrative to acquaint us with our solar system.

Ms. Sobel decided to write the book The Planets because her otherwise intelligent and well informed literary agent asked her a question about the difference between our galaxy and the universe that was so rudimentary to the understanding of the Astronomy she realized there was a grave needed for an informative book on Astronomy for intelligent people who were thoroughly ignorant of the cosmos above their heads.

She mentioned something that I always found true. Information published on Astronomy is generally off putting because it either dives in without introduction to basic concepts so that the Astronomy novice is immediately lost or it presents the basics in such a condescending way as to insult the intelligence of the reader above the age of 10. In The Planets she strives to address the intelligent person bereft of prior knowledge in an engaging way that brings them up to speed in a compelling way. I have not read this book yet, but I am eager to when I return home.

I was not prepared for the sublime Billy Collins. I had read some of his poems and thought they were witty. But to sit in a room and hear him read his own words out loud defies description. But I will try anyways, since I tend to defy things as a hobby.

Suffice to say I laughed harder last night then I recall laughing in some time. The poems he shared with us were as one person defined “his crowd pleasers”. I think that is an apt enough way to define it.

Collectively the people crowded together in that hot auditorium were twirled between deep belly laughs and the kinds of ooohs and aahs generally reserved for firework displays. After an hour and half he stopped reading to us but I know we all would have braved the heat of the auditorium, a fire alarm ringing, an invasion of hostile squirrels and the urgent need to use the bathroom just to hear a few more poems escape from Billy Collins lips.I understand now why the man has groupies.

Here is an incomplete list of what he shared with us:
Forgetfulness
I go back to the house for a book
Nightclub
Japan
The Lanyard
And while these are nice to read for yourself, to hear him say them outloud is something entirely different. Here is a download of the genius poet voice that had us so rapt last night.