Agreed. I like the fantastical turns of thought, the sense of an other saying this (whatever anyone of us thinks a dog thinks). Yes, perhaps there are some places for a slight editing down, but it moves slowly & definitely, Lawrence, & I can her it said that way…
Doug
On 2012-10-03, at 6:18 PM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> this is a very appealing poem, packed with imaginative thought and feeling, Lawrence.
> What are you going to do with it? is it finished? I dare say some of the more prosaic bits invite reconsideration, but I hear it in my mind's ear being delivered to a live and very appreciative audience.
>
> [It so happens that Germaine Greer of s-e Queensland has been writing about the wild dogs near her…thus:
>
> I prefer my animals unbroken.
> So I'm really, really pleased to be living in south-east Queensland with wild animals that do as they please, or, if we are to deny them the pleasure principle, as they have evolved to do. The dogs at Cave Creek live in a pack. I hear them howling often, sometimes very close by. I have never heard them bark, because they don't. Why do domesticated dogs bark? Maybe dogs bark for the same reason that angry old people bark. The oldest dog in the pack is the blond one I call Plumy Tail. I meet him occasionally in the scrub and I'm the first to look away, but I don't turn my back. One day he showed me the pack, led it out on to the main track in broad daylight. As the bitches and the puppies and the junior dogs filed past him, he kept looking down the track at me, with his ears pricked, as if to say, ''Not bad, huh?'']
>
> [the rest of her piece is about the several local pythons]
>
>
> On 03/10/2012, at 11:33 PM, Lawrence Upton wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> A fox terrier is barking at the sea.
>>
>> To dogs, his words might have exact meaning
>>
>> depending on their breed and dialect.
>>
>> It is for them that the dog barks; always;
>>
>> even in his most intimate dealings
>>
>> with Humans, he vocalises for the large pack
>>
>> he fantasises -- from our point of view --
>>
>> the pack which shall be when the world's made right.
>>
>> Some canine thought will not translate that well
>>
>> and seems to us flaccid, like a beach ball
>>
>> that has been punctured by sharp teeth; or dull,
>>
>> like something which one hopes will move, but won't.
>>
>> Nevertheless, I'll try to give the gist.
>>
>> He sings: Oh big area of drab water,
>>
>> I mistrust you. Why do you keep moving?
>>
>> I'm warning you! Be still and let me bite.
>>
>> Ocean, if that's what you are – I doubt it –
>>
>> don't be cowardly. Be still. I may attack.
>>
>> Look at the mess you have made. Pathetic.
>>
>> Is that the best you can do?
>>
>> Disorder?
>>
>> I've seen more chaos in my feeding bowl.
>>
>> Just because there's a lot of you, you know...
>>
>> I'm still warning you! I shall break contact.
>>
>> I shall come back, when I am free, and piss
>>
>> and I shall for a night and for a day
>>
>> until you are polluted and ashamed
>>
>> I will chew you into such little ponds
>>
>> that you will not be coordinated
>>
>> and my friends will come and drink all of you
>>
>> I'm warning you. I don't like your size here
>>
>> Go away now and come back much smaller.
>>
>> I'm warning you. I'm warning you. Stop it.
>>
>>
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
Something else is out there
godamnit
And I want to hear it
C.D.Wright
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