Snappy the Miracle Dog

Yes, he's mine. A bit ill-tempered, a bit freckled with rust, a bit asymmetrical, but he's a genuine Miracle Dog. Snappy is an antique tin lithographed toy made by Louis Marx & Co. Apparently there used to be a mechanism that would propel him at astonishing speed from the depths of his doghouse. Alas, it's missing.

By the way, I selected "April and Silence" by Tomas Transtromer (translated by Robert Bly) as my poem for Poem in Your Pocket Day yesterday. I couldn't resist the vivid simile in the third stanza: "I am carried inside / my own shadow like a violin / in its black case."

Mount Saint Mary College Reading, 4/17/08

I'll be reading at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY this Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 4:00 PM. Join me in the Curtin Memorial Library in Aquinas Hall. It will be open to the public and free of charge. Refreshments will be served. For directions, click on MSMC.

This coincides with the Academy of American Poets' first national Poem In Your Pocket Day. Here's their idea: "Select a poem then carry it with you (poem in your pocket) and unfold it with family, friends, and coworkers throughout the day." I'm not sure yet which poem I'll carry with me, but I'm thinking of something by Tomas Transtromer, Elizabeth Bishop, or Theodore Roethke. Or Emily Dickinson, or Charles Wright...

Happy Poetry Month!

The photograph was taken at the orchid show at the New York Botanical Garden.