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The Unitarian Church in Westport

10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - Ph: (203)227-7205 Sunday Services: 10:00 AM

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June 16, 2016 by Charles

My Hero by Billy Collins

Just as the hare is zipping across the finish line, the tortoise has stopped once again by the roadside, this time to stick out his neck and nibble a bit of sweet grass, unlike the previous time when he was distracted by a bee humming in the heart of a wildflower.

Filed Under: Readings Tagged With: Billy Collins

September 14, 2014 by Charles

Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep A Gun In The House by Billy Collins

The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking. He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark that he barks every time they leave the house. They must switch him on on their way out. The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking. I close all the windows in the house and put on a Beethoven symphony full […]

Filed Under: Readings Tagged With: Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House, Billy Collins, poetry, readings

October 8, 2012 by Jenny Klein

Silence by Billy Collins

There is the sudden silence of the crowd above a player not moving on the field, and the silence of the orchid. The silence of the falling vase before it strikes the floor, the silence of the belt when it is not striking the child. The stillness of the cup and the water in it, […]

Filed Under: Readings Tagged With: Billy Collins, poetry, readings, Silence

June 7, 2011 by Jenny Klein

Child Development by Billy Collins

As sure as prehistoric fish grew legs and sauntered off the beaches into forests working up some irregular verbs for their first conversation, so three-year-old children enter the phase of name-calling. Every day a new one arrives and is added to the repertoire. You Dumb Goopyhead, You Big Sewerface, You Poop-on-the-Floor (a kind of Navaho […]

Filed Under: Readings Tagged With: Billy Collins, Child Development, poetry, readings

August 31, 2010 by Jenny Klein

Consolations by Billy Collins

How agreeable it is not to be touring Italy this summer, wandering her cities and ascending her torrid hilltowns. How much better to cruise these local, familiar streets, fully grasping the meaning of every roadsign and billboard and all the sudden hand gestures of my compatriots. There are no abbeys here, no crumbling frescoes or […]

Filed Under: Readings Tagged With: Billy Collins, Consolations, poetry, readings

August 29, 2010 by Jenny Klein

The Lanyard by Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly off the blue walls of this room, moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano, from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor, when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard. No cookie nibbled by a […]

Filed Under: Readings Tagged With: Billy Collins, poetry, readings, The Lanyard

August 25, 2010 by Jenny Klein

The Teacher by Billy Collins

There is that part of us that believes We will never die – otherwise, How could we watch so much television, and there is the part that believes when we die, all life will come to an end. This is the part that storms within us dragging its robes across the marble floor. But what […]

Filed Under: Readings Tagged With: Billy Collins, poetry, readings, The Teacher

     The Unitarian Church in Westport
     is a member congregation of the
     Unitarian Universalist Association

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Church Hours: Tuesday - Friday
9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Summer Hours:
July & August until after Labor Day:
Tuesday - Friday 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

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