Billy Collins and Sarah on cigarettes, trains, and the cost

Sarah's American Conversation Commonplace Blog: Billy Collins, cigarettes are bad.: "The Best Cigarette by Billy Collins There are many that I miss having sent my last one out a car window sparking along the road one ni..."

How could I have forgotten this great poem that ties together our early discussion about tobacco and our current interest in trains?!?  Thanks to Sarah for the reminder and for the comments that do a lovely job of drawing out the similarities.

But, we ought not miss that Collins is using the cigarette and the train to convey something about productivity and creativity.  He is not using the train to point out the health hazards of the cigarette; rather he is using the cigarette to signify the progress of the train and to link it to his own creative energy on that day. 

I also notice that in this case Collins is not in agreement with Qoheleth who uses a word like smoke or vapor, but often translated as "vanity," to dismiss what appears to be progress.