In her own words...
"Wisdom Tinged with Joy"
2006
Out of the mouths of city dogs
have come some useful truths.
Barks and whines—noise to some—
are fraught with ancient wisdom.
A dog, to share his basic instinct,
will warn, say, of the landlord
at the door to spoil your day.
“Don’t open,” he barks. In vain.
“Don’t open,” he barks. In vain.
When the van is loaded: lap-top,
mattresses, and microwave,
a wise dog rides in stoic silence
to the new (smaller) apartment
where joyously he soon resumes
his job of watching over rooms.
About this work
“Wisdom Tinged with Joy” was published in The New Yorker, February 6, 2006, p. 77, and again in The Big New Yorker Books of Dogs, New York: Random House, 2013, p. 70. It is also included in Dorothea Tanning's book, Coming to That: Poems, New York: Graywolf Press, 2011, p. 47, and may not be reprinted without the publisher's permission.
