Dog Days 8 (Reading June 2015)

Dog Days is the longest running annual Dog Poetry reading maybe in the world!  Oh, our 4-legged beasts are so dear to us and we find much inspiration in them.  This reading was no exception.

Sabrina, our BAWA baker, made delicious treats for us to enjoy:  sugar cookies in the form of dog bones, fire hydrants and squirrels.

There is something about the relationship we have with our dogs that inspires some of the most wonderful and heart-wrenching poems.  I believe that John Brehm explains part of this feeling in his poem “If Feeling Isn’t In It” when he says: “There is no use pretending with them./Nor do they pretend…/…They make no secret of themselves…/…They just feel everything/full blast.  Everything is off the charts/with them.”

Our Annual Dog Days reading did not disappoint.  And we were even visited with a special guest — Blossom the Dog Poet.

 

      

 

AND a good time was had by all!  Here is what we read:

 

Poems read by Peter Montgomery   

“Morning Walk” by Peter Montgomery

“A Dog Has Died” by Pablo Neruda

“Her Grave” by Mary Oliver

“New Dog” by Mark Doty

“Dog Music” by Paul Zimmer

 

Poems read by Dan Vera    

“Happiness” by Michael Van Welligen

“What I Know and What the Dog Knows” by Dan Vera

“From One Old Dog to Another in Memoriam to our Sweet Oscar Wild” by William Pitt Root

“Laika” by Dan Vera

“Seven Dogs “ by Andrea Cohen

“Affection” by George Petty

“Dog Latin” by William Blake

“My Double” by Dan Vera

“I Love My Master” by Linda Berry

 

Poems read by Natassja Linzau   

“The Revenant” by Billy Collins

“The Storm (Bear)” by Mary Oliver

“Luke’s Junkyard Song” by Mary Oliver

“Benjamin” by Mary Oliver

“The Poetry Teacher” by Mary Oliver

“The Old Dog” by Leslie Norris

“The Wire-Haired Fox Terrier” by Leslie Norris

“A Man in Our Village” by Leslie Norris

“A Dog Named Beau” by Jimmy Stewart (as heard on the Tonight Show)

 

Poems read by Susan Scheid   

“Love Poem by My Dog” by John Hegley

“If Feeling Isn’t In it” by John Brehm

“A Country Dog in the City (Ona Leach, Which Is Bizarre Enough) Comes Upon an Obedience Class:  Twelve Dogs and Their Masters Walking Around in a Circle” by Roy Blount, Jr.

“A Dog Sleeping on My Feet” by James Dickey

“Heaven for Arden” by Mark Doty

“My Dog Practices Geometry” by Cathryn Essinger

“Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog” by Susan Scheid

 

“Haiku” by Jane Kasten

Fresh toilet water
dripping from hairy black chin
Can I kiss you now?