Unleashed!

My husband's always saying he'd like to be a dog in his next life, free to romp at will, chase pesky cats and obnoxious squirrels, nap in the sunshine, sprawl on a cool floor. Admittedly, our dogs seem to have a fine life. Today's featured poem does a great job of capturing canine bliss:

2010 Poetry Parade: Day 12

Unleashed
by
Ginny Lowe Connors

Oh you are a beautiful flash of purpose
as you race toward the geese,
scattering them, every one. The wide
arc of their furious flapping, their loud
squawking, their berating, their clamorous

lifting is like great bells of hammered brass
ringing out in the Church of Brave Terriers
on The Day of Infinite Bones. And you,
my brown and white bullet burning with joy,
you are magnificent as the ringer of bells.

Please, allow me to be your student,
let me learn to be as purely alive as you.

First appeared in Dog Blessings: Poems, Prose, and Prayers Celebrating Our Relationship with Dogs, (New World Library, 2008).
© by Ginny Lowe Connors.
Used here with the author’s permission.