Status Updates From Dog Songs. Treinta y cinco ...

Reading both Billy Collins and Mary Oliver's collections of poems about dogs, I can surely say that Dogs>Cats :P

“Emerson, I am trying to live,
as you said we must, the examined life.
But there are days I wish
there was less in my head to examine,
not to speak of the busy heart. How
would it be to be Percy, I wonder, not
thinking, not weighing anything, just
running forward.”

- Percy, waiting for Ricky

“Come with me into the woods where
spring is
advancing, as it does, no matter what,
not being singular or particular, but one
of the forever gifts, and certainly
visible.”

- Bazougey

“Benny, I say,
Don’t worry. I also know the way
The old life haunts the new.”

This is a really sweet collection of Mary Oliver’s feelings about her dogs.

It is not the least reason why we should honor as well as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born. What would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs?

Only unleashed dogs can do that. They are a kind of poetry themselves when they are devoted not only to us but to the wet night, to the moon and the rabbit-smell in the grass and their own bodies leaping forward.

Well, see? Just keep on liking things.
And praying.
"I don't know anything about that."
Yes you do. Every time you wake up and love your life and the world, you're praying, my dear boy. I'm sure of it.

But remember, you can't fix everything in the world for everybody.
"However," said Ricky, "you can't do anything at all unless you begin.

Be prepared. A dog is adorable and noble.
A dog is a true and loving friend. A dog is also a hedonist.

This is Sammy's story. But I also think there are one or two poems in it somewhere. Maybe it's what life was like in this dear town years ago, and how a lot of us miss it.
Or maybe it's about the wonderful things that may happen if
you break the ropes that are holding you.