Thursday, October 17, 2013

"...thirsty, happy poems."



The late, great Princess of Ploughshares

The Poetry Teacher


The university gave me a new, elegant
classroom to teach in. Only one thing,
they said. You can't bring your dog.
It's in my contract, I said. (I had
made sure of that.)

We bargained and I moved to an old
classroom in an old building. Propped
the door open. Kept a bowl of water
in the room. I could hear Ben among
other voices barking, howling in the
distance. Then they would all arrive—
Ben, his pals, maybe an unknown dog
or two, all of them thirsty and happy.
They drank, they flung themselves down
among the students. The students loved
it. They all wrote thirsty, happy poems. 


"The Poetry Teacher" by Mary Oliver, from Dog Songs. © Penguin, 2013.  (buy now

From "The Writer's Almanac"

1 comment:

Elise said...

How lovely, to experience this real world reordering of things by their deeper importance! We are reminded that it does not have to be 'business as usual'.