Young Dog Dashing ~ imitating a poem I love

YOUNG DOG DASHING
by April Halprin Wayland

Young Dog Dashing, how do you run
With Greyhound and Husky in the dust and the sun?
     In circles and twisting around the trees
     Gathering others for the widening game.

Young Dog Dashing, east and west,
How long do you race and when do you rest?
     For ages, for eons, as long as we please
…..Deep in our bones we will never be tamed.

Poetry Prompt: I have copied the sound and meter of a wonderful poem by Russell Hoban, which, like my poem on April 6th, is an apostrophe poem–one in which the poet talks to an inanimate object.

OLD MAN OCEAN
by Russell Hoban

Old Man Ocean, how do you pound
Smooth glass, rough stones round?
Time and the tide and the wild waves rolling
Night and the wind and the long gray dawn.

Old Man Ocean, what do you tell,
What do you sing in the empty shell?
Fog and the storm and the long bell tolling,
Bones in the deep and the brave men gone.

Imitation is a marvelous teacher.  Art students copy the masters, and I was taught to imitate the rhythm, meter and rhyme of poems I admired.  I love this one.

It’s your turn. What poem do you love?  Type it out.  Then choose your own topic and imitate the sounds, meter and rhyme of the poem as closely as you can.  After that, play with your new poem. In the end, you may stray from the original, which is fine.  Sometimes it’s just a jumping off point.  Enjoy the leap!