Poems for Dogs
I’d like to think we are better people for being in relationship to dogs. I think that is true. What is at least as true, is that dogs are loving, heartfelt, and quirky teachers and companions over years.
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The writing of poetry stills me, quiets me, helps me to pause and see. As a poet, I observe day to day moments and absorb life events. I seek to recognize meaning, connections, themes that help me understand the world around me and the world within me.
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Dogs, and in my case Chinooks, are great companions and collaborators for the creation of poetry.
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Life, Death and Wonder: Twenty Years with a Pack of Dogs
This collection includes thirty-two poems and six essays which either feature life experiences with dogs or where dogs serve as some kind of reference in the telling of a tale. It contains stories of human-canine companionship across the life cycle of dogs – anticipating and celebrating their birth, witnessing their interrelationships, caring for them as they age and decline, and accompanying them as they transition from this life to what is next. It is about knowing who we are and who we want to be in relationship to the world around us.
For An Old Dog (For Baring)
I groaned - annoyed
When you first woke me
Pulled a pillow over
My head and hid
I did not sleep again
For I remembered who I am
To you
That your old body
Like mine
Cannot wait long hours
Compassion stirred me
Honoring our agreements – I rose
My companion, my friend
Sleepy, I watched you
Trot out the door
With a grateful roo and
A playful toss of your head
A steady rain is falling now
Trees as silhouettes look black
Against the dark blue morning sky
You sleep soundly
Full belly, head resting
On another dog
I sit in my favorite rocker
Old and low to the ground
My feet propped on the sofa
Where you nap
I groan with gratitude now
For this
This wonder, this gift
This I could have missed
For thirty minutes more
Of sleep
Tell Me A Secret
Jackman, my biggest dog
Climbs onto my lap
Wanting to be the only one
For that moment
“Tell me a secret”
I whisper to this
Lanky, brown dog
He kisses my cheek
“That is common knowledge”
I reply
“Come on, tell me a secret”
“All the world is good”
He begins
“It’s just that so many
Do not know this
About themselves
Or the other”
He paused and pondered
His blocky head resting
Atop my heart
Continuing his thoughts
He concluded
“We who know
Carry the burden
To bring this lesson forward”
“When we offer love
Perhaps they will notice
The hunger for love
That lives inside
Perhaps they will recognize
The love they have to give”
Deep brown eyes
Were now looking into my own
“It’s all about the love”
Was his final reply
I paused and pondered
My thoughts resting
Within my heart
“You are a wise one”
I said at last
To Jackman, my biggest dog
“That is common knowledge”
He replied
“Come on, you tell me a secret”
What is Born?
(Christmas 2016)
What is born
During this cold time
When many
And much has died
Leaving my flesh tattooed with grief
I stare down the fierce
And northern wind
Cold to my bones
I’ll be damned if I show
A shiver
Wrapped in my warmest coat
With three dogs bursting ahead of me
I take to the wooded trails
To find what is born
Ladyslipper and trillium are
Fast asleep
Dreaming of days in May
The swimming hole
Frozen over with ice
Chickadees and jays
Dance in the sky
Too soon for new hatchlings
Pale blue sky is born
Sun has risen
A promise made and fulfilled each day
Cedar and pine
Stand in strength
Dogs run ahead on the trail
Then circle back
To be at my side
Over and over again
Devotion born each time
We ascend the mountain trail
Stepping over ice and birch logs
And stones
History keepers
With tales to tell of
Time gone by
And what is new
On this day
We stand on an
Outcropping of rock
Against the wind
With each other
To see the world before us
Mount Washington and Chocorua
On the far horizon
I close my eyes
Open them again
For I thought I saw
One lone tawny dog
Run across the field below
Toward the end of the trail
I shiver
What has died
Lives on
Hope is born on this day
And tattoos my heart
With love eternal
