Each poem is a journey, and the reader is meant to come along.

Topic: Reaching Your Audience

Billy Collins: Whatever impact my work has is, it’s either comic relief or probably mental _______ somewhat in that I see these poems as little acts of travel, or little acts of imaginative journeying, or looking through the woods for something and finding a clearing at the end of a poem. And to be able to take people on that little ride, I imagine it’s pleasurable for them because it gives pleasure for me. And since I’m the first one to take the ride, I figure others would enjoy it too.

But I don’t see any impact beyond that. I don’t think you can think about that and still write, or still play or whatever your form of expression is. You do it and then it falls into the world. And the fact that the world doesn’t completely ignore it is probably enough feedback for one.