Q.Who is America’s favorite living poet?
A. Billy Collins
Q. Who is America’s favorite pet?
A. The dog
Q. Do you think that Billy Collins writing poems about dogs might make an attractive column?
A. Let’s give it a go! And if I may, I’d like to add a pair of dog poems by Mary Oliver.
* * *
Last year, Billy Collins released his latest volume of poems, which he called
“Dog Show.” It’s a delightful collection and should be on every dog shelf.
* * *
* * *
The night was clear
and the moon was yellow
are such good opening lines
I’m surprised others haven’t used them.
But that’s the way it was
that night when I noticed
a medium-size dog
crossing my lawn
apparently on his way somewhere.
I was alone for several reasons,
So I tried to get him to come over,
By whistling and barking
Then by guessing his name.
I used some common ones
like Butch, Scruffy, and Max,
before going exotic.
“Chaucer!” “Pencil!”
“Pepin the Short!”
I yelled after him from the porch
as he disappeared like a spirit
without a home into a dark hedge.
And that left me to wonder
about his name and who he was
and who I was for that matter,
me in a blue half-buttoned shirt
outside with a tumbler of whiskey
and a moon that was just
as yellow as it was before the dog,
which is when I realized
that like everyone else I was many things,
but now I was the man with cupped hands
who called “Stagger Lee!”
and there he suddenly was,
trotting my way in the moonlight.
* * *
Billy Collins agrees that every dog has its day, but sometimes he can’t help but be a bit envious.
I have no need for a biscuit,
a chew toy, or two bowls on a stand.
No desire to investigate a shrub
or sleep on an oval mat by the door,
but sometimes waiting at a light,
I start to identify with the blond Lab
with his head out the rear window
of the station wagon idling next to me.
And if we speed off together
and I can see his dark lips flapping
in the wind and his eyes closed
then I am sitting in the balcony of envy.
Look at “you.” I usually say
when I see a terrier on a leash
trotting briskly along as if running
his weekday morning errands,
and I stop to stare at any dog
who is peering around a corner,
returning a ball to the thrower,
or staring back at me from a porch.
So early this morning
there was no avoiding a twinge
of jealousy for the young spaniel,
tied to a bench in the shade,
who was now wagging
not only his tail but the whole of himself
as a woman in a summer dress
emerged from the glass doors of the post office
then crouched down in front of him
taking his chin in her hand,
and said in a mock-scolding tone
“I told you I’d be right back, silly,”
leaving the dog to sit
and return her gaze with a look
of understanding which seemed to say
“I know. I know. I never doubted that you would.”
* * *
Billy Collins is a pianist and music-lover. So it’s not surprising that he would respond to the percussion section in the house next door.
The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.
The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,
and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.
When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton
while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.
* * *
Another popular poet who published a full book of dog poems was Mary Oliver, who lived just outside West Stockbridge. Her dog Percy became nationally known. And his friend Ricky as well. Her book is called “Dog Songs.”
* * *
* * *
Percy wakes me and I am not ready.
He has slept all night under the covers.
Now he’s eager for action: a walk, then breakfast.
So I hasten up. He is sitting on the kitchen counter
where he is not supposed to be.
How wonderful you are, I say. How clever, if you
needed me,
to wake me.
He thought he would hear a lecture and deeply
his eyes begin to shine.
He tumbles onto the couch for more compliments.
He squirms and squeals; he has done something
that he needed
and now he hears that it is okay.
I scratch his ears. I turn him over
and touch him everywhere. He is
wild with the okayness of it. Then we walk, then
he has breakfast, and he is happy.
This is a poem about Percy.
This is a poem about more than Percy.
Think about it.
* * *
I’m not sure that Percy ever met Billy Collins’ dog, but they would have gotten on famously.
Now let’s meet Ricky.
“Please, please, I think I haven’t eaten
for days.”
What? Ricky, you had a huge supper.
“I did? My stomach doesn’t remember.
Oh, I think I’m fading away. Please
make me breakfast and I’ll tell you
something you don’t know.”
He ate rapidly.
Okay, I said. What were you going to
tell me?
He smiled the wicked smile. “Before we
came over, Anne already gave me my breakfast,”
he said.
Be prepared. A dog is adorable and noble.
A dog is a true and loving friend. A dog
is also a hedonist.
* * *
And, by the way, the expression that every dog will have his day, his place in the sun, dates back at least to Shakespeare:
Hamlet:
[to Laertes] Hear you, sir,
What is the reason that you use me thus?
I loved you ever. But it is no matter.
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.
* * *
Josh Billings said, “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” I would like to finish this column with a dog picture that illustrates that and moves me greatly. It’s called: “Waiting for You to Come Home.”
* * *
* * *
VIDEO. Our video was recorded in Canada, at a lecture series called TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. Billy Collins performs two of his best-known poems: “A Dog on His Master’ and “The Revenant,” both poems meant to be spoken by the dog.
CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR VIDEO: EVERY DOG HIS DAY
