[kjk]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BUN21EFS7H.DTL

Billy Collins, one of the country's most popular poets, had never seen his work in e-book form until he recently downloaded his latest collection on his Kindle.

He was unpleasantly surprised.

"I found that even in a very small font that if the original line is beyond a certain length, they will take the extra word and have it flush left on the screen, so that instead of a three-line stanza you actually have a four-line stanza. And that screws everything up," said Collins, a former U.S. poet laureate whose "Ballistics" came out in February.

"I have mixed feelings about poetry and e-books," said award-winning poet Edward Hirsch, whose "The Living Fire" came out in March in hardcover, but not as an electronic text. "I don't think it's the best way to read poetry myself, and I wouldn't want to read it on the e-book, but it also seems important to have poetry available wherever possible."