THE INDIVIDUAL ANIMAL IN POETRY153easier to fail than succeed.^55 The best I have read are by W. S. Merwin in
his recent book The Shadow of Sirius. The title itself suggests that the
entire book is marked by memories of dogs, that Merwin is looking back
on his long life in part through the memory of the individual dogs who
have marked portions of it. At the book’s center is a section of eleven
poems, all of which are elegies of individual dogs. The final poem of this
series, “Dream of Koa Returning,” speaks for itself, articulating a grief
and acknowledging the life and meaning of the presence of the dog he
names in the poem’s title. The poem creates a space in language where
an animal and a human might really meet.
Sitting on the steps of that cabin
that I had always known
with its porch and gray-painted floorboards
I looked out to the river
flowing beyond the big trees
and all at once you
were just behind me
lying watching me
as you did years ago
and not stirring at all
when I reached back slowly
hoping to touch
your long amber fur
and there we stayed without moving
listening to the river
and I wondered whether
it might be a dream
whether you might be a dream
whether we both were a dream
in which neither of us moved^56