This morning I read Cornelius Eady’s poem “I’m a Fool to Love You” and was inspired to use the format of his poem to craft my own. Eady’s poem is a blues poem, a form I was not familiar with. You can read about blues poems here so I won’t try to paraphrase or to imply that I know any more than what is given there.

This poem began with my sitting here and noticing that the sun is out after several days of clouds and rain. When we see the sun in the morning, we often say it’s going to be a good day, but here I used the word “told” and personified the sun, implying that I needed to be told it was a good day.

I twisted that idea in the next line suggesting that it was the lottery that gave me the freedom to think the day would have possibility. This felt absurd to me and led directly to the irony of a dog’s life and giving a dog’s perspective on days. Also, my three dogs were and are surrounding me as I write.

Part of the irony I attempted to write into this poem was that we tell or direct dogs in so many, many ways, at least I do with our three dogs. We keep them on leashes so they can’t run away or just wander through our neighborhoods. We tell (beg) them to stop barking.

Then I wanted to suggest that dogs have the unique ability to want little from the world and instead pretty much see everything as good and possible without needing to be told.

And I just realized the irony here of me “telling” you why my poem is good.

Now that’s funny.

I love this picture of our dog Remy spreading out on our couch last year. I do not know even one adult human who can so freely lay down and enjoy being. Dogs do stuff like this all the time.

And, I like to think, so did many of us until we grew up, whatever that means.