meet the star, Loki; credit – swb

Well, it’s officially summer. And officially, this is the time I write most. Inspired by my surroundings and my dog. Seriously. Over the past several summers I have written a veritable tome about her in her various guises.

So what better time and place to share them than here and now? Because this particular summer, I’m also attempting to refine prior writings rather than produce more. Until (unless) I can make some cohesive collection or sense of what already fills my computer’s memory.

Sadly, I do not have pictures to accompany each writing; nor am I gifted enough to sketch what image I see in my words. But perhaps you will and if so, please feel free to use these quick word sketches to inspire your visual ones. And then share with me, OK? I love that kind of interactive artistic experience.

For my first post from the collection I’m fondly calling “Dog Days,” even though we aren’t there yet by the calendar or temperature:

INTO THE WILD

Her morning nose snuffles the path,
zig-zagging body aquiver with game
whose prints craze with their scented trail;

she plunges deep for flitting fish, gallops
full tilt after geese, parts leafy glade
in search of her prize,

this hunter on
safari and
leash!

first published in Into the Great Blue: Meditations of Summer, Finishing Line Press, 2011