1. The Seeing Eye - written by Ezra Pound
Read 7039 times on American Poems.

The small dogs look at the big dogs;
They observe unwieldy dimensions
And curious imperfections of odor.
Here is the formal male group:
The young men look upon their seniors,
They consider the elderly mind
And observe its inexplicable... (Read full poem)

The dogs greet me, I descend
into their world of fur and tongues
and then my wife and I embrace
as if we'd just closed the door
in a motel, our two girls slip in
between us and we're all saying
each other's names and the dogs
Buster and Sundown are... (Read full poem)

3. Yes Yes - written by Charles Bukowski
From burning in water drowning in flame. Published in 1955. Read 3863 times on American Poems.

when God created love he didn't help most
when God created dogs He didn't help dogs
when God created plants that was average
when God created hate we had a standard utility
when God created me He created me
when God created the monkey He was... (Read full poem)

An old man whose black face
shines golden-brown as wet pebbles
under the streetlamp, is walking two mongrel dogs of dis-
proportionate size, in the rain,
in the relaxed early-evening avenue.

The small sleek one wants to stop,
docile to the... (Read full poem)

5. The wind drew off - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1869 times on American Poems.

The wind drew off
Like hungry dogs
Defeated of a bone --
Through fissures in
Volcanic cloud
The yellow lightning shone --
The trees held up
Their mangled limbs
Like animals in pain --
When Nature falls upon herself
Beware an Austrian.(Read full poem)

beside me in this garden
are huge and daisy-like
(why not? are not
oxeye daisies a chrysanthemum?),
shrubby and thick-stalked,
the leaves pointing up
the stems from which
the flowers burst in
sunbursts. I love
this garden in all its moods,
even... (Read full poem)

7. Night In Iowa - written by Deborah Ager
From Georgia Review. Published in 2000. Read 3389 times on American Poems.

Nimbus clouds erasing stars above Lamoni. 
Jaundiced lights. Silos. Loose dogs. Cows
whose stench infuses the handful of homes,
whose sad voices storm the plains with longing.(Read full poem)

had less to do
with any harm
they might inflict
than with the sad
look in their eyes
expressing a need
for love he felt
he couldn't meet.
And so he looked
away from them.


He was too busy
for such obligations,
waiting instead
for angels to... (Read full poem)

9. Meditatio - written by Ezra Pound
Read 9961 times on American Poems.

When I carefully consider the curious habits of dogs
I am compelled to conclude
That man is the superior animal.

When I consider the curious habits of man
I confess, my friend, I am puzzled.(Read full poem)

Leaping, leaping, leaping,
down line by line,
growling at the cadavers,
filling the holy jugs with their piss,
falling into windows and mauling the parents,
but soft, kiss-soft,
and sobbing sobbing
into their awful dog dish.

No point? No twist for... (Read full poem)

11. Dogheads - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 1662 times on American Poems.

AMONG the grassroots
In the moonlight, who comes circling,
  red tongues and high noses?
Is one of ’em Buck and one of ’em
  White Fang?
  
In the moonlight, who are they, cross-legged,
  telling their stories over and over?
Is one of... (Read full poem)

(For Louise Imogen Guiney)

There is a wall of flesh before the eyes
Of John, who yet perceives and hails his King.
It is Our Lady's painful bliss to bring
Before mankind the Glory of the skies.
Her cousin feels her womb's sweet burden... (Read full poem)

13. Whiffletree - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 1638 times on American Poems.

GIVE me your anathema.
Speak new damnations on my head.
The evening mist in the hills is soft.
The boulders on the road say communion.
The farm dogs look out of their eyes and keep thoughts from the corn cribs.
Dirt of the reeling earth holds... (Read full poem)

At home, in my flannel gown, like a bear to its floe,
I clambered to bed; up the globe's impossible sides
I sailed all night—till at last, with my black beard,
My furs and my dogs, I stood at the northern pole.

There in the childish night my... (Read full poem)

15. The Silent Shepherds - written by Robinson Jeffers
From The Beginning and the End & Other Poems. Published in 1963. Read 703 times on American Poems.

What's the best life for a man?
--Never to have been born, sings the choros, and the next best
Is to die young. I saw the Sybil at Cumae
Hung in her cage over the public street--
What do you want, Sybil? I want to die.
Apothanein Thelo. Apothanein... (Read full poem)

here I am
             in the ground
                            my mouth
                            open
                       and
            I can't even say
                       mama,
                          and
the dogs run by and stop... (Read full poem)

17. Doc Hill - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 1096 times on American Poems.

I went up and down the streets
Here and there by day and night,
Through all hours of the night caring for the poor who were sick.
Do you know why?
My wife hated me, my son went to the dogs.
And I turned to the people and poured out my love to... (Read full poem)

When I was young and bold and strong,
Oh, right was right, and wrong was wrong!
My plume on high, my flag unfurled,
I rode away to right the world.
"Come out, you dogs, and fight!" said I,
And wept there was but once to die.

But I am old; and good... (Read full poem)

19. Something Has Fallen - written by Philip Levine
Read 502 times on American Poems.

Something has fallen wordlessly 
and holds still on the black driveway. 

You find it, like a jewel, 
among the empty bottles and cans 

where the dogs toppled the garbage. 
You pick it up, not sure 

if it is stone or wood 
or some new plastic made... (Read full poem)

YOUR eyes and the valley are memories.
Your eyes fire and the valley a bowl.
It was here a moonrise crept over the timberline.
It was here we turned the coffee cups upside down.
And your eyes and the moon swept the valley.
 
I will see you again... (Read full poem)

21. The Great Western Plains - written by Hart Crane
Read 1201 times on American Poems.

The little voices of the prairie dogs 
Are tireless . . . 
They will give three hurrahs 
Alike to stage, equestrian, and pullman, 
And all unstingingly as to the moon. 

And Fifi's bows and poodle ease 
Whirl by them centred on the lap 
Of Lottie... (Read full poem)

I know a country laced with roads,
They join the hills and they span the brooks,
They weave like a shuttle between broad fields,
And slide discreetly through hidden nooks.
They are canopied like a Persian dome
And carpeted with orient... (Read full poem)

23. Invisible Work - written by Alison Luterman
From The Largest Possible Life. Published in 2001. Read 1829 times on American Poems.

Because no one could ever praise me enough,
because I don't mean these poems only
but the unseen
unbelievable effort it takes to live
the life that goes on between them,
I think all the time about invisible work.
About the young mother on Welfare
I... (Read full poem)

HAVE I told any man to be a liar for my sake?
Have I sold ice to the poor in summer and coal to the poor in winter for the sake of daughters who nursed brindle bull terriers and led with a leash their dogs clothed in plaid wool jackets?
Have I given... (Read full poem)

25. The Stars Go Over The Lonely Ocean - written by Robinson Jeffers
From Be Angry At The Sun And Other Poems. Published in 1948. Read 1832 times on American Poems.

Unhappy about some far off things
That are not my affair, wandering
Along the coast and up the lean ridges,
I saw in the evening
The stars go over the lonely ocean,
And a black-maned wild boar
Plowing with his snout on Mal Paso... (Read full poem)