Golden Retrievals by Mark Doty

[conuly]

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.

Link

Comments

[dine]

isn't that great? I just came across that, and saved it for Poetry Month next year

[conuly]

Is that a statue of a dog?

[dine]

it is - I didn't make the icon, but I've always had the impression it was part of a headstone on a grave somewhere

[chanter1944]

Awwwww. <3 The icon is of a lab, but they're equally excellent at human retrieval.

[conuly]

And at food disposal, I've heard.

[chanter1944]

Yep. :P If you want something sniffed out, get a lab. Truly though, they are empathy and loving kindness made aware and mobile. Big wiggly teddy bears that they are.

[cellio]

Oh that's perfect. And that title... :-)

[conuly]

:)

[greenwoodside]

Aw, love this. If I ever get round to creating the big Reasons to be Happy display board I sometimes scheme about, this poem would certainly go on it.

[isis]

Aw, I liked this poem!

[adafrog]

Good.

[larryhammer]

Love it. (That broken rhyme at the end is so wonderfully Zen, too.)