You the dog guy, Max.
I like the off rhymes/rhymes in most of the triplets, & miss them where they don’t appear;it seems to be the knack of the thing. And its tale…wagging…
Doug
On Dec 3, 2014, at 9:51 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> December
>
> I rise in the dawn
> like Yeats’s old
> peasant woman,*
>
> the dogs underfoot
> rousing Heaven -
> but not, if I’m quick,
>
> wife and neighbors -
> they deserve later
> waking than this.
>
> Food bowls: at the ready.
> Silent now the dogs are
> scoffing steady,
>
> then - rain or fine
> gale or storm
> snow or shine -
>
> they race in turn
> outside for their first
> squat of the day.
>
> Once this is done
> the day settles down
> to my long cup of tea,
>
> their long sprawling
> on the mat, doubting
> me over their next outing.
>
> *
>
> After snow you walk
> warily avoiding slopes
> anticipating slips
>
> especially if like
> me you met it last
> decades since - oops -
>
> exhilarated first
> at the bright white light
> crisp layer on everything,
>
> penetrated next
> by the sharp chill
> where skin’s exposed
>
> or garments thin,
> cuffs too loose
> or wind insinuates.
>
> One day’s enough
> for winter - please
> can spring come now?
>
> *
>
> December’s pretty lights
> are up and on -
> they promise
>
> artificial cheer
> until the festive season
> expires with New Year.
>
> If you have credit to spend,
> prepare to spend it now
> before your maxed-out card
>
> reaches its end
> and spoils that Twelfth
> Night afterglow.
>
> Think of your cousins,
> Kiwis, Australians,
> sweltering through shopping,
>
> snow-capped Nativities,
> perspiring Santa’s padding,
> perverse summer activities
>
> like feasting on roast meats
> and hot sticky pudding,
> under sun that’s scorching.
>
>
>
> *'Song of the Old Woman'
> http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/rare_1930s_audio_wb_yeats_reads_four_of_his_poems.html
Douglas Barbour
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Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
that we are only
as we find out we are
Charles Olson
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