In this article we present some poems related to dogs to inspire and in many cases make you think, we start with one of the best and most moving ones that we have ever read.
From Just A Dog
Just A Dog
by Richard Biby
For all of my animal lover friends….
From time to time, people tell me, “lighten up, it’s just a dog,” or, “that’s a lot of money for just a dog.
They don’t understand the distance traveled, the time spent, or the costs involved for “just a dog.
Some of my proudest moments have come about with “just a dog.
Many hours have passed and my only company was “just a dog,” but I did not once feel slighted.
Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by “just a dog,” and in those days of darkness, the gentle touch of “just a dog” gave me comfort and reason to overcome the day.
If you, too, think it’s “just a dog,” then you will probably understand phrases like “just a friend,” “just a sunrise,” or “just a promise.
“Just a dog” brings into my life the very essence of friendship, trust, and pure unbridled joy.
“Just a dog” brings out the compassion and patience that make me a better person.
Because of “just a dog”, I will rise early, take long walks and look longingly to the future.
So for me and folks like me, it’s not “just a dog” but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future, the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment.
“Just a dog” brings out what’s good in me and diverts my thoughts away from myself and the worries of the day.
I hope that someday they can understand that it’s not “just a dog”, but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being “just a man or woman.
So the next time you hear the phrase “just a dog” just smile… because they “just don’t understand.
Dog Dreaming
by W.S. Merwin
The paws twitch in place of chasing
Where the whimper of this seeming-gentle creature
Rings out terrible, chasing tigers. The fields
Are licking like torches, full of running,
Laced odors, bones stalking, tushed leaps.
So little that is tamed, yet so much
That you would find deeply familiar there.
You are there often, your very eyes,
The unfathomable knowledge behind your face,
The mystery of your will, appraising
Such carnage and triumph; standing there
Strange even to yourself, and loved, and only
A sleeping beast knows who you are.
The Dog
by Ogden Nash
The truth I do not stretch or shove
When I state that the dog is full of love.
I've also found, by actual test,
A wet dog is the lovingest.
A LITTLE DOG THAT WAGS HIS TAIL
BY EMILY DICKINSON
A little Dog that wags his tail
And knows no other joy
Of such a little Dog am I
Reminded by a Boy
Who gambols all the living Day
Without an earthly cause
Because he is a little Boy
I honestly suppose –
The Cat that in the Corner dwells
Her martial Day forgot
The Mouse but a Tradition now
Of her desireless Lot
Another class remind me
Who neither please nor play
But not to make a ‘bit of noise’
Beseech each little Boy
Man and Dog
by Siegfried Sassoon
Who’s this—alone with stone and sky?
It’s only my old dog and I—
It’s only him; it’s only me;
Alone with stone and grass and tree.
What share we most—we two together?
Smells, and awareness of the weather.
What is it makes us more than dust?
My trust in him; in me his trust.
Here’s anyhow one decent thing
That life to man and dog can bring;
One decent thing, remultiplied
Till earth’s last dog and man have died.
The Power of the Dog
By Rudyard Kipling
There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie—
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.
When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find—it’s your own affair—
But… you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.
When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!).
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone—wherever it goes—for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.
We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long—
So why in—Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?
Lost Dog
by Ellen Bass
It's just getting dark, fog drifting in,
damp grasses fragrant with anise and mint,
and though I call his name
until my voice cracks,
there's no faint tinkling
of tag against collar, no sleek
black silhouette with tall ears rushing
toward me through the wild radish.
As it turns out, he's trotted home,
tracing the route of his trusty urine.
Now he sprawls on the deep red rug, not dead,
not stolen by a car on West Cliff Drive.
Every time I look at him, the wide head
resting on outstretched paws,
joy does another lap around the racetrack
of my heart. Even in sleep
when I turn over to ease my bad hip,
I'm suffused with contentment.
If I could lose him like this every day
I'd be the happiest woman alive.
THE DOG
BY OGDEN NASH
The truth I do not stretch or shove
When I state that the dog is full of love.
I’ve also found, by actual test,
A wet dog is the lovingest.
Dogs Go To Heaven
by Megan Osburn
You're the best friend I could ever ask for,
The one I can talk to.
You listen to everything I have to say;
I'm really going to miss you.
You're growing old
And can't walk as fast,
But don't you worry,
I won't forget about our past.
I love the comfort you offer,
Except when you chewed up my shoe.
But it's okay, we all make mistakes.
I'm really going to miss you.
We loved to play ball,
Chasing it down the hill.
You're the hairiest of them all,
But you still get the chills.
It's almost time to go.
Don't worry about me.
Just do it slow,
And forget about all the fleas.
I love you with all my heart,
The best friend I'll ever have.
I'm really going to miss you.
I love you, and that will never change.
A Dog's Mistake
by Banjo Paterson
He had drifted in among us as a straw drifts with the tide,
He was just a wand'ring mongrel from the weary world outside;
He was not aristocratic, being mostly ribs and hair,
With a hint of spaniel parents and a touch of native bear.
He was very poor and humble and content with what he got,
So we fed him bones and biscuits, till he heartened up a lot;
Then he growled and grew aggressive, treating orders with disdain,
Till at last he bit the butcher, which would argue want of brain.
Now the butcher, noble fellow, was a sport beyond belief,
And instead of bringing actions he brought half a shin of beef,
Which he handed on to Fido, who received it as a right
And removed it to the garden, where he buried it at night.
‘Twas the means of his undoing, for my wife, who'd stood his friend,
To adopt a slang expression, “went in off the deepest end”,
For among the pinks and pansies, the gloxinias and the gorse
He had made an excavation like a graveyard for a horse.
Then we held a consultation which decided on his fate:
‘Twas in anger more than sorrow that we led him to the gate,
And we handed him the beef-bone as provision for the day,
Then we opened wide the portal and we told him, “On your way
Tom's Little Dog
by Walter de la Mare
Tom told his dog called Tim to beg,
And up at once he sat,
His two clear amber eyes fixed fast,
His haunches on his mat.Tom poised a lump of sugar on
His nose; then, ‘Trust! ‘ says he;
Stiff as a guardsman sat his Tim;
Never a hair stirred he.
‘Paid for! ‘ says Tom; and in a trice
Up jerked that moist black nose;
A snap of teeth, a crunch, a munch,
And down the sugar goes!
The Final Countdown
by Courtney Bailey
My Shelter Days are numbered ten.
Ten more days until my end.
My Shelter Days are numbered eight.
Please adopt me. Change my fate.
My Shelter Days are numbered six.
Adopt a pet week, still no one's pick.
My Shelter Days are numbered four.
Four more days and then no more.
My Shelter Days are numbered two.
Someone will take me, I just don't know who.
My Shelter Days are numbered none.
I know I'm finished, then you come.
My Shelter Days are over, done,
Because you, my master, took me home.
My Best Friend
by Abby Jenkins
Black and white
Thick and furry
Fast as the wind
Always in a hurry
Couple of spots
Rub my ears
Always comes when his name he hears
Loves his ball; it's his favorite thing
What's most fun for him? Everything!
Great big tongue that licks my face
Has a crate, his very own space
Big brown eyes like moon pies
He's my friend till the very end!
ROOM FOR ONE MORE DOG
I see by his coat he must be a stray,
The untidy look gives him away.
He’s lost his will and is so thin,
Hasn’t eaten, since who knows when.
I know as I coax him through the door,
There’s always room for one more.
The other night in the freezing rain,
That little female came again.
Matted and soaked, crying in need
Lost and alone with babies to feed.
Her pleading eyes, I couldn’t ignore,
There’s always room for one more.
There’s the poor doggy, standing in the rain,
I’ve tried to entice him time and again.
One ears lopsided, the other’s been torn,
Blind in one eye, lost and forlorn.
He’s coming now, so I’ll open the door,
There’s always room for one more.
These stories are true,
As I’ve said before,
There’s always room for one more.