It’s Poetry Friday!
I’ve been thinking a lot about dogs this week. I learned that a friend’s beloved pup was diagnosed with a serious illness, my own aging dog is battling some vision problems, and then came the most devastating news—one of my daughter’s dogs, the one that was supposed to outlive the other, unexpectedly passed away from an illness no one knew she had.
It’s not surprising that I found myself turning to the poems of Mary Oliver for comfort. As one who loved dogs, she had a way of deeply understanding them. Here are two passages from poems in Dog Songs (2013) by Mary Oliver:
“A dog can never tell you what she knows from the
smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know
almost nothing.”
“See how the violets are opening, and the leaves
unfolding, the streams gleaming and the birds
singing. What does it make you think of?
His shining curls, his honest eyes, his beautiful barking.”
Here’s a poem I recently wrote in response to a prompt from my poetry group, The Nevermores, to write a poem that begins with the line”This is what life does…”:
Remembering
by Rose Cappelli
This is what life does…
It wakes you early one morning and sets your soul
remembering—
remembering the dogs
who hover inside your heart
in ways never imagined,
even now.
It guides you down a path of remembering
how much each has accepted,
given unconditionally and
shared all the love and comfort, joy and sorrow
of every part of your life
in every stage of your life.
Life, it seems, provides us a roadmap
for living well and growing old gracefully—
if we remember.
Draft, 2023RoseCappelli
My dog, Cyrus, in his younger days.
Robyn has the roundup today on Life on the Deckle Edge. Be sure to head over there for a lovely tribute to mothers and lots more poetry goodness.
Imagine the Possibilities 
I love that, Rose. “the dogs/ who hover inside your heart” is beautifully put. I remember all the dogs in my childhood neighborhood, as well as our own, with great affection. Here’s to Mama Mia, Prince, Katie, Pepe, Bosco, and the rest!
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So great that you remember all their names! I think Mary Oliver has a poem where she names all the dogs she knew or owned.
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Rose, this is so wonderful. “who hover inside your heart”–yes. And yes to a roadmap. If only more people were like dogs. :>)
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I know that we remember, Rose. After many years, I still recall the ‘feel’ of a dog’s coat. I love that you wrote about the dogs you care about and am sorry for the sudden loss, too.
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Thank you, Rose, for this post – sending extra hugs to your family. I’m still grieving over recently losing our sweet 3 1/2-pound Chihuahua Rita (age 10) out of the blue after a medical emergency, so your words and Mary Oliver’s resonate with me deeply. Rita was my constant little companion and full of so much love. Any loss makes us also miss the dogs who went on before, doesn’t it?
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Oh Rose, I’m so sorry for your daughter’s loss. It’s been a tough week for our pups. I meant to ask about Cyrus, too – I’m sorry. My mom gifted me DOG SONGS when our first family dog died. My favorite was the dogs-off leash one (blanking now on the name). But I love yours, still, and again.
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So glad Bonny is responding. Continued prayers.
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I love this prompt and your response to it! It is extra hard to be the mother of fur babies — their lives are so short and mysterious. And yet, they make our own lives so much larger and more love-filled. A conundrum, indeed.
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Rose, I related to your post so well and the unconditional love of a good dog. Your poem is how we learn from dogs to notice and love without any strings attached. I have a bumpersticker that is taped up in my laundry room, “Lord, help me be the person my dog thinks I am.” My schnoodle is 15. 5 and has an enlarged heart and mini-seizures. But the way he gets so excited to get his medicine is full of joy. I no longer take him with me on my morning walk and I miss that. Thanks for sharing your dogs and Mary Oliver’s poem as well as yours. That striking line is a good prompt.
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amazing 🤩
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Oh how lovely to have these Mary Oliver poems. I’m still holding out hope for you and Patricia to have some lovely days ahead with your sweet pups.
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As a confirmed cat person, which I believe entails a different kind of relationship, I appreciate all these lessons in doglove, and your poem very much too, Rose. May all their memories be for a blessing, as our Jewish friends say.
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Thanks, Heidi.
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