If you’ve followed the blog long enough, you’ve probably noticed my love for TED Talks. Since I haven’t given you a TED in awhile, I searched for another inspirational talk on the creative process only to find that I’ve already shared my three favorites (Elizabeth Gilbert, Amy Tan, and Young-ha Kim). A more broadened search lead me to a lecture given by former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins.

I really like Billy Collins. I feel like I’m always running into people who don’t care for his work, and I can’t really understand why. I find his poems funny, profound, accessible (maybe its the accessibility that people dislike?). His TED Talk only confirmed this for me. I guess you could describe it as a poetry reading with a twist: rather than simply reading the work off the page, Collins presents five animated versions of his poems. If you’d like to view the talk, it’s quite fun. For this post, however, I thought I’d go straight to the work.

And so, here are four animated Billy Collins poems for your fourth Writer’s March Friday (in no particular order). I always find that poetry inspires my own work. I hope it does the same for you.