Paul Hoover
My Dog is Wild
He scratches the earth
to bury his bone
as others do paper
to bring up a word.
My dog is pleased
when I scratch his head,
but has a wild insistence
that he is the master
and I’m his servant.
He sleeps like a bog,
but now and then
he runs in his dreams
after something.
I can see from his teeth
the excitement.
I sit on the bed in my house
on a street they forgot to name.
My red dog runs through the night
until he breaks through.
It’s then the night brightens,
In truth and in trial,
as if it were in flames.
My dog resides in a world
that dims and flares and dims.
We do what we must do,
in and out of the cycle.
We stand together, howling,
at the bleeding station
on Peephole Street.
We’re mirror-image beings
of a post-philosophical age.
Our summers are loud with bees.
Our winters crack to pieces.
We are not distracted
by the traffic of sun and moon.
In the palace of our retirement,
my dog whispers to me,
even the earth is passing.
The Urgency
“The ghosts with names and the ghosts with none”
—Michael Palmer
the tree in heat
the burning tree
the cat on fire
the urgency
shadow hat
hat worn flat
future-past
dust in advance
carry me home
beyond the bone
dolls on the bed
one playing dead
they are not,
and they are air
float on up
or take the stairs
minds are windows
winds have rows
the word false
is also true
kill me twice
shame on you
why the night
and light go under
speaking from
the heart’s penumbra
standing tall
is not a science
what’s a color
why’s a sight
torrents, pools
a fool’s forever
first the image
then the rain
light of science
scent of pears
the sun is raw
the moon is new
first the marriage
then the weather
push the car
and crash the carriage
hysterical cleric
untold tale
bearing witness
names are blameless
crucifixion or
a game of tennis
cross the valley
swim the ford
flesh has answered
bone’s on hold
did we ever
when’s undone
in Fargo, in
the Target store
To a Poet | Delores Peffley
BIO
PAUL HOOVER has published fifteen books of poetry, most recently Desolation: Souvenir (Omnidawn, 2015) and the bilingual edition En el idioma y en la tierra (In Idiom and Earth), translated by Maria Baranda (Mexico City: Conaculta, 2012). He teaches at San Francisco State University.