COLLINS' PLAYFULNESS ENVELOPS `PICNIC, LIGHTNING'.(BOOKS)

Byline: GENE DAMM

In ``Picnic, Lightning,'' Billy Collins shows how much a poet can accomplish with the lyric, a short line, and language clean and clear as bottled water.

As he proved in the well-received ``The Art of Drowning,'' Collins writes with the quirky intelligence of Charles Simic and the lyric intensity of Edward Hirsch -- often in the same poem.

Collins is a warm, welcoming poet. He contrasts himself with William Butler Yeats, who insisted the poet never speak directly to the reader. Collins likens his poems to conversations over the breakfast table.

Fellow poet Richard Howard says he is funny without being silly. I would add …