October 2: "Hippos on Holiday," Bigfoot Poems, Dreams Do Come True

Many, many years ago, I dreamed of a book that I would love to read:  a collection of Bigfoot poems.  This was when Amazon was in its infancy, and Google wasn't a verb.  I searched the internet, visited different websites (again, this was before social and media met).  The book simply didn't exist.  

Billy Collins dreams of a movie he'd like to see . . . 

Hippos on Holiday

by: Billy Collins

is not really the title of a movie
but if it were I would be sure to see it.
I love their short legs and big heads,
the whole hippo look.
Hundreds of them would frolic
in the mud of a wide, slow-moving river,
and I would eat my popcorn
in the dark of a neighborhood theatre.
When they opened their enormous mouths
lined with big stubby teeth
I would drink my enormous Coke.

I would be both in my seat
and in the water playing with the hippos,
which is the way it is
with a truly great movie.
Only a mean-spirited reviewer
would ask on holiday from what?

This afternoon, I received a shipment of my new collection of poems--A Bigfoot Bestiary and Other Wonders.  It's the book of which I dreamed so many years ago.  To give you an idea of how long it took me to write it, one of the poems predates my daughter, who will be 24 years old in December.  

There are no hippos in my book.  However, you do get a lot of Bigfoot and lake sturgeon and ducks and jellyfish and chipmunks.  When I first opened the box, I just stood there, staring at the book's cover.  Until today, it didn't seem real.  More like a really good fever dream where hippos do go on holiday and Bigfoot trick-or-treats.  

I've been carrying a copy of the book with me all day long.  Every once in a while I'll hold it in my hands, flip through the pages, read a line or stanza.  Just to remind myself that dreams can come true.  

Saint Marty may sleep with the book under his pillow.