Friday 10 January 2014

Reward Posters




The presents have been exchanged
and another year is in these woods

where the trees are hung with portraits
of family pets, those dogs now gone

to chase the deer and squirrel.
In the wild wet woods

some creature glimpsed and freedom
called that dog, that freedom that left her

holding that useless lead. And shouting
his name in vain. Her dog is gone

and along the paths and trails she now
posts photographs on trunks

with details of her reward in cash.
Your dog like an outlaw knows his name

and he won't turn back. Freedom
sends him on . . .


6 comments:

  1. Do lots of dogs get lost in these woods then?

    These woods always remind me of Jesmond Dene although I guess they are much more extensive than Jesmond Dene and my memory is probably playing tricks in any case. Jesmond Dene is in Newcastle Upon Tyne. I used to live there.

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  2. I like the separation of this poem into two-line stanzas Gwil - often in places where they are unexpected.

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  3. Rachel, over the next few weeks in these vast Vienna Woods photos of the runaway dogs will sprout on the trees as if by magic. Most are never seen again. I'll have to goggle Jesmond Dene - it's a new one on me.

    Pat, I tried to get the pace to suit the action. The dog vanishing, flitting through the trees as it were, following a deer maybe.

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  4. I mean most dogs not most photos. Sometimes you can see the same dog on several different widely spaced trees.

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  5. I don't know why but I've now got the song "on the trail of the lonesome pine" in my head and I can't get it out.

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  6. Hope it has stopped running now Gerald!

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