A poet’s laurels

It’s not often you get to recite a poem for a former poet laureate. But this is the Aspen Ideas Festival, and anything can happen. At the speakers’ dinner tonight, our intern Aaron Jaffe and I found ourselves in fascinating conversation with poet Billy Collins about art’s role in shaping public opinion. Somehow the topic veered off the mighty track of global social movements toward humorous rhymers such as Ogden Nash, whom Collins admired. Here was my chance. For Collins and another participant, a senior U.S. intelligence official, I recited Nash’s “The Python.” I fib no fibs.