A Tribute to our Canine Friends - Poetry by Taylor Graham

I love to go exploring, but recently it's been confined to some well-trodden paths on the internet - Radio National podcasts, Blogs of my fellow writers, TED, health websites when I'm feeling hypochondriacally inclined, and poetsonline. Poetsonline is a great site for people who want to stretch their poetry muscle. You might want to check it out if you'd like some inspiration to write a poem or two.

It was on poetsonline that I first came across the poetry of Taylor Graham. I'm not sure what it is about this poetry that drew me in each time I read her response to one or another prompt that the poetsonline site puts up on a monthly basis, but drew me in it did! Not so surprising, as it turns out. Seems she is a prolific and well-loved established poet.  Anyway, in my ignorance of this last fact, I followed her link and emailed her to ask if she had any publications. At that time she had something coming up, she told me a little about it, it sounded fascinating, so at my request she put me on the list to let me know when her new volume would be launched. That particular birth happened towards the end of last year, and I placed my order.

The big day arrived about a month ago. It's still exciting getting mail in the post that isn't a bill or an advertisement, isn't it? I opened my package to find two volumes - What the Wind Says, and Walking the Puppy. Wonderful! I sat down to read it straight away. I wasn't disappointed.

Now here's one very interesting thing about Taylor Graham. This writer has devoted her life for the last forty years to training her German Shepherds to find lost people. I've tried photographing the back cover of What the Wind Says so that the longer story of this is conveyed, but what the poetry conveys is a deep love and understanding between her dogs - all individual personalities - and owner/trainer Taylor Graham. In the process the partnership has found and helped to resolve countless missing persons cases. It has inspired the poetry that seems to live and breathe within the pages of these books.

In Taylor's own words: (page 3, What the Wind Says):

Over the years my dogs have shown me so many things: footprint of a missing woman; my lost car keys; sunrise over rimrock; the spot in river where a drowned man was wedged under rocks; snake's-eye view of manzanita thicket; crevice in a collapsed building where crews might dig to find a trapped woman, alive; two boys playing hooky; sudden screamer-vistas not meant for tourists.

 Walking the Puppy is a slim volume which is written about a cheeky and strong-willed German Shepherd puppy called Loki. The dedication says:

for Loki,

the pup who wasn't like any dog

we've ever known before;

and who, not fitting our expectations,

created her own

The poems are delightful.

I hope you will seek out the Lummox Press website and purchase one, or both of these poetry books.