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Genius.

Publisher	Modern Poetry Association
Publication	Poetry
Subject	Literature/writing
Format	Magazine/Journal
ISSN	0032-2032
Issues per Year	12
Volume	182
Issue	2
Published	2003-05-01

Role	Type	Name
Author	n/a	Billy Collins

Related Content	Type
The “Genius”	Salem on Literature

GENIUS

   was what they called you in high school
   if you tripped on a shoelace in the hall
   and all your books went flying.

   Or if you walked into an open locker door
   you would be known as Einstein,
   who imagined riding a streetcar into infinity.

   Later, genius became someone
   who could take a sliver of chalk and squire pi
   a hundred places out beyond the decimal point,

   or someone painting on his back on a scaffold,
   or a man drawing a waterwheel in a margin,
   or spinning out a little night music.

   But earlier this week on a wooded path,
   I thought...

[This journal article is 246 words long]