Covid-19: Turning into my Dog by Marty Krasney

LUCY BURDETTE: I belong to an alumni writers email list, and last week one of our members posted a poem about how his dog is handling the Covid 19 crisis. I loved it so much that I asked him if I could share it with you. And he agreed...

Dexter (with Marty) ready for a walk in the rain

"Covid 19 - Turning Into My Dog" by Marty Krasney


Dexter's doing what Dexter always does.
That mostly means napping at one of ten
of his favorite places around the house,
or, if not quite napping, seeking comfort.
Top of the list, the bed in the guest room,
usually the bolster near the headboard,
unless there's a sunlit patch further down.
He likes to lie on his back on the couch
in the booklined den with the Tibetan
rug. Dexter's a Tibetan Terrier;
does he remember from prior lifetimes?
There's a narrow place next to the toilet
which he leaves quickly if I come to pee.
Surprising he likes it on the cold tiles;
that too might be linked to his heritage.
They were temple dogs when not herding yaks.
The old green leather chairs in the kitchen,
especially when someone's visiting,

(though that's now just a memory for us both)
or I'm reading, and there's something to eat.

All night, the chair near the TV upstairs
except when he hears animals outside
and runs back downstairs to investigate.
That's when he barks to say this is my house.
then stops off in the kitchen for a drink.


Moving from place to place, from there to here.
Kind of settled but not really settled.
Paying attention though not clear to what.
Maybe aware that death comes for everyone;

meanwhile, making a life, around and through.
Warmth and connection, blessed solitude.

Today pretty much the same as yesterday.

With luck tomorrow will be like today.
That's been Dexter's response to the virus.
And starting this past week, it's mine now too.



Lucy again: I hope you love that poem as much as I do. Now I'm desperate for a Tibetan terrier. Do you have an animal in your life who's offering survival lessons for these times? Or a poem or book that's helping you through?

Here's another lovely poem John and I saw posted on the lawn of the courthouse in Key West on Sunday:

If you think you could use more poetry in your life, here are a couple of resources. Pome sends you a poem every day--some days they speak to me and I save them to read again, and others wash by.


https://tinyletter.com/pome

Also the poetry Foundation publishes a poem a day: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/poem-of-the-day

As does Poets.org https://poets.org/poem-a-day#


About Marty: Marty Krasney served as an executive, adviser and board member for NGOs In education, social justice, civic engagement and leadership development, starting in 1969 at the Woodrow Wilson foundation in Princeton and mostly ending in 2018 with the transfer to a permanent home at the University of Virginia of Dalai Lama Fellows. He helped found that program and lead it for a decade, identifying and developing young contemplative social justice activist from all over the world and engaging them in a lifelong secular community addressing major global challenges. 

He has had stories published in half a dozen journals, most prominently five in Arete, published at Oxford University. He has devoted significant energy to poetry only in the last five years. He’s had pieces published in Innisfree, and is at work now on two book-length narrative pieces.