Hello, Poetry Friend
How fun is it that the birthday month for for my picture book of children’s poetry, Rainbow Crow, is also National Poetry Month!
Rascal, the dog in my ghazal titled “Dear Rascal,” is as real to me as any dog I’ve ever owned. He has been part of a picture book, a middle-grade story, and a YA novel — all unpublished and, I’m sad to say, deservedly so.
I loved Rascal, but I didn’t know what to do with him, story-wise. I suspect he was growing tired of me as well. And then I read Tania Runyan’s How to Write a Form Poem and realized I could rescue that poor dog through poetry.
It seemed what Rascal needed was a ghazal, an ancient Arabic form of verse that Runyan writes is “helpful for emphasizing longing or for exploring metaphysical questions.” Like crows vs. chickens.
Dear Rascal
In August, crows transgress. Poor dog.
Use doggie chow for a round of chess. Poor dog.
They imitate the neighbor, the neighbor’s pet.
Who’s next? It’s anybody’s guess. Poor dog.
They heckle the wrens, harass squirrels from a nest,
hector small children. But I digress. Poor dog.
The gods send us crows as a form of address—
don’t judge. Your puppy chow could be next. Poor dog.
Dear Rascal. Leave the crows alone. It’s for the best.
From your fruitless corvid hunt, rest. Poor dog.
Go chase a chicken instead!
–Megan Willome
Once I decided to turn Rascal’s adventures into a form poem with specific rules, it came together quickly. I could string together Rascal’s crow encounters like “jewels on a necklace,” as Runyan says. Each couplet is its own story, but they are linked by the melancholy dog whose enemy remains just out of reach. “Poor dog,” indeed.
The poem’s last line is very un-ghazal-like. It’s an homage to one of my stories that had crows and chickens as next-door neighbors. My kids knew I was working on a story about Rascal, and my daughter drew this illustration.
We have a new dog — Evvie, a Lab mix who roamed the mean streets until she was picked up, at which time she birthed a litter of puppies. She’s still making our home her home. So far she’s kept our fence crow-free. But she is a bit of a rascal.
an earlier version of this post appeared at Tweetspeak Poetry
Happy poeming!
Megan