Once again Billy Collins captures the universal experience with his lens and displays in a new prism of light for all of us to examine with delight.

What a sweet surprise, the end moment of this lovely poem. The travail we find ourselves inside, just a misunderstanding. Dear. I like BIlly Collins work and am so happy to see it here. A thanks to our editor, Ms Rainey.

Thanks Billy Collins for transforming everything into beauty. Kudos to the poetry editor for bringing such wonderful writers here!!!

Exquisite, I loved reading this and being transported to to the needle of the record and silence. Thank you editors of Cultural Weekly for adding poems. I've just subscribed looking forward to more such beautiful selections.

It delights me that Billy Collins can take a simple moment like listening to a talk radio advice show, spin it into a meditation on the music of the spheres, then bring it right back to the woman in the doorway, her husband looking up from the newspaper. How much we’ve traveled in those few lines!

Thank you Adam and Wendy for luring the the angels back to the city of angels.

I love "the needle lifted from the grooves of those celestial orbs" Congrats Wendy and Adam for bringing a billy Collins poem to the cultural weekly. What a great blog!

Turning a complaint into music– not a bad definition of poetry.

Terrific poem. How nice to find a Billy Collins poem in the Cultural Weekly. Thinking of Jack Grapes' question, perhaps part of the answer is that 20th century American poetry fell in love with "difficulty" & lost its audience which wanted, as any sane person would want, to understand what the poet was saying. Jack Grapes has written humorously on this subject in his wonderful poem "I Like My Own Poems." Both Grapes and Collins are helping to bring American poetry back to life.

What a beautiful poem by Billy Collins! It inspires me to lift the needle from the noise of my own life and notice something important I might be missing. Congrats to Wendy Rainey on the "get" and to Cultural Weekly for continuing to be one of my favorite blogs.

Aside from something artificial in the roles of husband and wife that will always keep them from “hearing” each other is Billy Collin’s subversive message in this seemingly good-natured poem: What is that “celestial music” that deadens us to each other and our true interests, if not that newspaper in front of our faces, with its wall-to-wall lies dictated by our fake political parties, our criminal government, tricking us into accepting being ruled by our oligarchs, voting against our own interests, and fighting their wars of conquest and exploitation all over the globe, with illusions that we’re the good guys. Until we put down the paper, turn off the tv and listen to our hearts, we’ll be tricked, used, and abused. I know you didn't spell that out, Billy, but your poem has many levels.

Stunning! I could hear the Sax playing throughout the poem – still do. A beautiful reminder of the art of listening. Indeed, i will refer back to this jewel of a poem from now on. You hit it out of the park with this one, talented Poetry Editor! Thank you. I will be passing this on.

Delighted to find one of my all-time favorite poets on the Cultural Weekly website! Billy Collins! Quite the score! I'm looking forward to what Wendy Rainey has in store for us next.

In this poem Billy offers a textbook-worthy example of the Metaphysical conceit. Not only does he stretch the distance (several light years) between the unfamiliar thing (music of spheres) and the familiar (a wife's ceaseless nattering), but then he reverses polarities, explaining the familiar in terms of the unfamiliar. Bravo! (But how does Mrs. Collins feel about the poem?)

Collins is one of America's best, and this poem is further proof of that. Gorgeously written, with an understated elegance that draws the reader in. What a joy to come across this poem today!

a lovely truth

I'm new to Cultural Weekly and not much on poetry, but am quite enamored with this poem. The last stanza made me teary – really hits an emotional chord. I'll definitely be coming back.

To listen as if for the first time . . . a perfect reminder for the beginning of a New Year, and by so eloquent a poet, Billy Collins, is a very auspicious first poem for the new poetry editor, Wendy Rainey. I'm keeping my dial tuned right here . . .

Wonderful, poem Billy! Thanks Jack Grapes for bringing it to our attention spans! See you in class!

Yes!!! Billy, i "hear" your poem. Thank you for reminding me to listen. And all applause to Adam for the creative elegance of Cultural Weekly. I teach Kundalini Yoga & Meditation for Creativity and often bring in articles from the CW Blog for my students. Inspiring and uplifting. And thanks to Wendy for bringing Billy Collins back into the silence of my heart. I shall share this poem with one and all.

Thank you for this poem and really, thank you for your whole magazine. I don't know of any other site that offers its readers such artistic richness. My daughter lives in China now but while home for the holidays she became a subscriber to keep up with the arts in LA. Hey, maybe you'll entice her home again!

incredible images billy, thank you
…and for this piece i'm listening, wendy!

Billy Collins is a favorite in general, but this one really moved me. I loved how he started with the pedestrian and moved to the profound in such an elegant way. Thank you Cultural Weekly for giving such respect to poets and for your stunning format. Thank you, thank you!

Billy Collins has always been one of my favorite poets … his ability to make jewels out of every day moments is breathtaking. Thank you Cultural Weekly and Wendy Rainey for making me lift up my head, and listen.

What a gorgeous poem, love Billy Collins and so thrilled to see him sharing his work here. Many thanks, to Wendy Rainey, clearly a top notch literary editor and one of my favorite modern novelists, funny, heartwarming, skillful. I am looking forward to picking up my copy of Nancyland at the local bookstore.

so perfect and true…exactly what we always find in a Billy Collins poem!

Billy, you are a dear. Thank you for this lovely poem, and thank you to Wendy and all the good people tuning in and turning their faces toward this soulful poem.

Thank you Billy Collins for this poem, profound and humorous at the same time. Thank you Wendy for your talent in bringing us inspiration.

What a great poetry selection! I will keep coming back to Cultural Weekly for great selections like these! Many Thanks!!

Hot damn. What a delight to see Billy Collins work here. What a delight to discover CULTURAL WEEKLY.

This poem took my breath away, itself a piece of celestial music. Thank you Wendy Rainey for bringing this to us and thank you to Billy for using this forum to share a moment of perfect beauty.

The music and the metaphysics of the iambs and the anapests.
(Hi, Billy. Best, Gerry.)

Wow, shades of Guy Murchie's Seven Mysteries of Life, fused into a Billy Collins piece, along with a comment from Dorianne Laux, all because I opened my Yahoo email (an annual event), and I may faint for the glory of poetry and the dance of coincidence for all I regard as holy and fun!

What a treasure trove of humanity is to be found in Cultural Weekly….thanks to Adam Leipzig.
And thanks to the guiding hand of Poetry Editor Wendy Rainier we have exceptional pieces like the Music Of The Spheres, by Billy Collins. In this crazy, violent, upside down world, we need you Wendy, and Adam to keep alive the beauty of art and the expressions of perceptive hearts to give us all balance, hope and inspiration. Thank you for what you bring to life and to Light for all of us.

Wow…made my morning! Thanks.

nice!

So lovely…I can hear the orbs now as I breathe in that peaceful poem. It reminds me…oh yes…now I remember to stop and listen! Thank You, Wendy!

billy has inspired me to lift the needle off my own record player …. wendy, terrific job of editing.