Let me remember joy

by Ann E. Michael
A good companion

A good companion

Excerpts and links to some vivid poetry as a kind of consolation, thanks to The Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine, and to some wonderful writers:

Alicia Ostriker’s celebration of animal exuberance in Poetry:

…Pursuing pleasure
More than obedience
They race, skid to a halt in the wet sand,
Sometimes they’ll plunge straight into
The foaming breakers…

~~

“A Dog Has Died” by Pablo Neruda

…all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

…

Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit…

~~

Bob Hicock’s “Unmediated Experience”—

She does this thing. Our seventeen-
year-old dog. Our mostly deaf dog.
Our mostly dead dog, statistically
speaking. When I crouch.
When I put my mouth to her ear
and shout her name. She walks away.
Walks toward the nothing of speech.
She even trots down the drive, ears up,
as if my voice is coming home…

~~

Mary Oliver has a recent book of dog-related poems. Critics have derided it as sentimental–but that’s part of the role dogs play for us humans. Only part, though. There’s more, I think; but at present–no intellectualizing. Emotion–feeling–is fundamental to the human physiology.

Here’s my favorite photo of her.

524860_10200306585091559_756123494_nLooking out. Living in the moment.

~~

“Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift.” ~Mary Oliver

3 comments on “Let me remember joy”

  1. judithar321 says:
    March 26, 2015 at 2:50 pm

    When they are just puppies, we know already that this day will come — which doesn’t make it any easier. Not at all.

    Like

  2. KM Huber says:
    April 3, 2015 at 12:59 pm

    This post and you have been on my mind, in particular what to comment. Last night, a line from a favorite Einstein quote surfaced. It seems to me, dogs “live life as though everything is a miracle.” We who love them benefit from that. And when dogs die, they leave with us that miracle. I think that is the joy we remember.
    Karen

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Remembering joy, redux « ann e michael says:
    January 27, 2019 at 1:22 pm

    […] The death of a beloved animal companion some years ago took me to Oliver then. And in the sorrow, I recalled the gladness of having that dog in my life. […]

    Like

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