Author: Christina's Words

“The darkness around us is deep.” ~ William Stafford

“If I Were a Dog” by Richard Shelton

On By Christina's WordsIn Music, Poetry2 Comments

I would trot down this road sniffing
on one side and then the other
peeing a little here and there
wherever I felt the urge
having a good time what the hell
saving some because it’s a long road

but since I’m not a dog
I walk straight down the road
trying to get home before dark

if I were a dog and I had a master
who beat me I would run away
and go hungry and sniff around
until I found a master who loved me
I could tell by his smell and I
would lick his face so he knew

or maybe it would be a woman
I would protect her we could go
everywhere together even down this
dark road and I wouldn’t run from side
to side sniffing I would always
be protecting her and I would stop
to pee only once in awhile

sometimes in the afternoon we could
go to the park and she would throw
a stick I would bring it back to her

each time I put the stick at her feet
I would say this is my heart
and she would say I will make it fly
but you must bring it back to me
I would always bring it back to her
and to no other if I were a dog

“If I Were a Dog” by Richard Shelton, from The Last Person to Hear Your Voice. © University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007.

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Editor Favorite: This is one of my all-time favorite poems (originally shared here on March 17, 2014). It makes my heart soar as if it were flying, higher, higher, and higher still, to such great heights. For M, te amo.

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“Such Great Heights” (cover) performed by Iron & Wine; (Original by The Postal Service.)

“Mad Girl’s Love Song” by Sylvia Plath

On By Christina's WordsIn Poetry5 Comments

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan’s men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you’d return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

~ Sylvia Plath

“The Big Bang” by Louis Jenkins

On By Christina's WordsIn Poetry2 Comments

When the morning comes that you don’t wake up,
what remains of your life goes on as some kind of
electromagnetic energy. There’s a slight chance you
might appear on someone’s screen as a dot. Face it.
You are a blip or a ping, part of the background noise,
the residue of the Big Bang. You remember the Big
Bang, don’t you? You were about 26 years old, driving
a brand new red and white Chevy convertible, with
that beautiful blond girl at your side. Charlene, was
her name. You had a case of beer on ice in the back,
cruising down Highway number 7 on a summer
afternoon and then you parked near Loon Lake just
as the moon began to rise. Way back then you said to
yourself, “Boy, it doesn’t get any better than this,” and
you were right.

“The Big Bang” by Louis Jenkins, from Tin Flag: New and Selected Prose Poems. © Will o’ the Wisp books, 2013.

 

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Editing to add: 

This song doesn’t match the poem perfectly, but it does make me smile. Hopefully it will make you smile too:


 

“Daisy’s Song” by John Keats

On By Christina's WordsIn Poetry

I
The sun, with his great eye,
Sees not so much as I;
And the moon, all silver-proud,
Might as well be in a cloud.
II

And O the spring- the spring
I lead the life of a king!
Couch’d in the teeming grass,
I spy each pretty lass.
III

I look where no one dares,
And I stare where no one stares,
And when the night is nigh,
Lambs bleat my lullaby

 

~ John Keats

“April” by Mary Oliver

On By Christina's WordsIn Poetry

I wanted to speak at length about
The happiness of my body and the
Delight of my mind for it was
April, a night, a full moon and-

But something in myself for maybe
From somewhere other said: not too
Many words, please, in the muddy shallows the

Frogs are singing.

Mary Oliver, from Swan: Poems and Prose Poems, Beacon Press.