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.
 
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.

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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.