Golden Retrievals : Poem In Your Post

Golden Retrievals

Fetch? Balls and sticks capture my attention

seconds at a time. Catch? I don’t think so.

Bunny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who’s—oh

joy—actually scared. Sniff the wind, then

I’m off again: muck, pond, ditch, residue

of any thrillingly dead thing. And you?

Either you’re sunk in the past, half our walk,

thinking of what you never can bring back,

or else you’re off in some fog concerning

—tomorrow, is that what you call it? My work:

to unsnare time’s warp (and woof!), retrieving,

my haze-headed friend, you. This shining bark,

a Zen master’s bronzy gong, calls you here,

entirely, now: bow-wow, bow-wow, bow-wow.

                                                       - Mark Doty

I've offered poems by Mark Doty here before, and this is the second of his I've chosen that features a canine companion.   You can find the first here.   Rest assured though, Mr. Doty is by no means limited by or to this subject, as he's a talented essayist and poet who explores a range of issues in life and art.  I highly recommend him, and my students thoroughly enjoyed a peer's performance of the lighthearted little sonnet above.

MFB,

L

You might also admire his brilliant long-form essay Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy or his gorgeous memoir Dog Years.  Even if you are not "an animal person", the latter will move you.