This week’s poem offers us a meditation on some of the unspoken reflections, insights and love that might be held in a dog’s bark. I love the ease and affection with which poet Michael Tarabilda moves between inner worlds and outer ones, and how expansively he considers the many forms wisdom can take.
After writing prolifically for some 50 years, Michael Tarabilda has begun gathering his poems into collections, with three volumes already published in limited editions. “Dog Barking” is from the volume “The Wardrobe of Love.”
Dog Barking
By Michael Tarabilda
The dog’s bark
sharpens the sky,
then vanishes.
I too try
to touch the wheel
of the sky’s expanse.
The dog turns toward me.
Eyes implore me
to listen to its wisdom.
“While I thrive
with neglect,
I hope you
will feel the resonance
I interject
into your loneliness.”
For me
it is a strong note
overwhelming all mere sighs.
Dogs love too,
but their tendencies toward
decahound syllables
are caught in howls unrealized.
Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. Deep Water: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. “Dog Barking” copyright 2019 by Michael Tarabilda, reprinted from his collection “The Wardrobe of Love” (Bodhibard Editions, 2019), by permission of the author.
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