That Pablo Neruda character was something else. There are good reasons why he won the Nobel Prize.

A Dog Has Died


My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.

Some day I'll join him right there,
but now he's gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I'll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.

Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he'd keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on the shores of the sea
in the lonely winter of Isla Negra
where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea's movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean's spray.

Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.

There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don't now and never did lie to each other.

So now he's gone and I buried him,
and that's all there is to it.


Pablo Neruda

Thanks for sharing your story.

WW behavior is ... despicable and the OM, how could he did that knowing that you were facing an illness.

How frustating that the correct diagnosis took so long.

I find myself a little out of words. Do you think characters as the one of you WW or Gemela are not redemible*?

About the typos... Hey, I can't notice them. Lol.

Great, great poem.



with a look that reserved for me alone...


I didn't know this poem.

OM is a serial predator. WW was another notch in his belt, another conquest. I don't know if WW understands that now or not. She may, but cannot accept it. OM, at the time, was married to her best friend in the neighborhood, and BF told WW on countless occassions about OM's serial cheating ways and WW still could not resist his "charm". I think she was attracted to him for whatever reason. I wish I had a pic of him. He is a joke. He is older, several inches shorter than me, weighs more and is not very smart. He thinks he is always dying and has panic attacks if around more than two to three people at a time.

Want to hear the kicker? BF told WW that OM was a racist. According to BF, OM hated all minorities including Hispanics (hate that term BTW; invention of US government). WW has been on the wrong end of discrimination and bias and knows how low it feels. Still, she jumps in the sack with a known racist. It still blows my mind.

Todd, at the risk of being seriously mushy, you know you already ARE Superman don't you?

I don't know Jen. I guess I had talked about being, or desiring to be Superman so much yesterday, that when I awoke this morning, I for some reason, thought I was Superman.

There is a side porch here about three feet off the ground. I jumped off it and, once again, landed on my head. All my life, the desire to become Superman has guided my every move.

You should have gone up on the roof. Much more chance of actually taking off.

I never wanted to be a superhero. I wanted to be Little Joe's girlfriend.

Or Rowdy Yates' girlfriend, or Bart Maverick's girlfriend. James Garner never did it for me. Gee, I laugh when I watch old reruns. They were all seriously nerdy.

Do you remember Little Joe's first movie?

"I Was a Teenage Werewolf'.

True.

Did you see the Maverick movie in which Mel Gibson played Brett Maverick and James Garner played his pappy? Fun movie.

Mel is either married to a Kiwi or an Aussie. Cannot remember.

No I never saw the Maverick movie - it couldn't have come close to the old black and white TV show. I hate having my illusions shattered. Erm, I think I might be a little YOUNG to remember Michael Landon's first movie. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Mel is married to an Aussie or maybe she's American. Mel IS an Aussie, maybe born in the USA, can't remember.

Hey, BigK, he's another one you can keep. LOL

Thanks for sharing that Neruda's poem on dog.....it's soooo touching!

As a family, we already have buried one dog a few years back...a female golden retriever...I know when WS had to take her off to the vet I would never see her again.... it was hard!

....two weeks later....the yard felt so empty....went off to the SPCA to see if we 'spotted' a dog to our liking that had been left there....

....and there he was...found our 'current' big dog....who needed to NOT be a golden retriever for obvious reasons..... we were not trying to 'replace' the dog we had lost.....they are 'unique'.....anyway, all shaggy....can hardly see his little black beautiful eyes under all the fur?? hairs?? ....we don't exactly know what 'breed' he is.....he supposedly comes from a 'lineage' of sheepherders.....I guess he must feel a little lost sometimes....no sheeps around our house!

...anyways.....they told us he was about one-two yrs old......figured he must have been 'beautiful' as a pup... but when big dogs get big....people tend to find them high maintenance! ....anyway...he's male....and has this 'big' bark to cover up his 'anxieties'..... barks to anything 'unknown'... he can bark at my moving shadow.... silly dog!..... and when he sleeps it's easy to imagine him....as this BIG baby!

..by the way...have you seen that Italian movie based on Pablo Neruda's 'sejour' in Italy?..... I believe it was called THE POSTMAN..... good movie!

....Sheesh Todd... never thought I would hear myself say this to anyone..... but your WW's A may have actually been the 'least' of your worries....glad to see you're 'hangin in' there!

It's actually past 2am...and I can't sleep....and I know I may be talking to myself....

.....I am actually 'dropping by' to help me to get to sleep!

....I know....I know....LUNAMARE.....'get a life!'

Just noticed some cross-posting....so...I am not the only one 'up'......but then again....

Kiwi....what time is it in your part of the world?

Kiwi....I with you on this one....I guess Todd figures we are all 'his age'!

That made me think of a Jackson Browne song.

The Only Child

Boy of mine
As your fortune comes to carry you down the line
And you watch as the changes unfold
And you sort among the stories you've been told
If some pieces of the picture are hard to find
And the answers to your questions are hard to hold

Take good care of your mother
When you're making up your mind
Should one thing or another take you from behind
Though the world may make you hard and wild
And determine how your life is styled
When you've come to feel that you're the only child
Take good care of your brother

Let the disappointments pass
Let the laughter fill your glass
Let your illusions last until they shatter
Whatever you might hope to find
Among the thoughts that crowd your mind
There won't be many that ever really matter

But take good care of your mother
And remember to be kind
When the pain of another will serve you to remind
That there are those who feel themselves exiled
On whom the fortune never smiled
And upon whose life the heartache has been piled
They're just looking for another
Lonely child

And when you've found another soul
Who sees into your own
Take good care of each other

LOL LM, I'm only 5 years younger than Todd.

Here it's 6.33pm on Tuesday night. So it's not late for me at all.

Todd...thanks for the lyrics.... you are a 'fountain' of knowledge.....



....it's how I feel about 'us' here!

No, I am the eternal night owl.

Haven't seen that particular Italian movie. Have you seen "Swept Away"?

You ask that a lot, Todd, about "Swept Away".

Maybe I should see it.

Todd, I haven't liked to ask, but what is your prognosis?

Is this a reference to his song, "Fountain of Sorrow"? That song is his best from a lyrics standpoint, IMHO. My favorite lines are in bold.

Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer
I was taken by a photograph of you
There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more
But they didn't show your spirit quite as true

You were turning 'round to see who was behind you
And I took your childish laughter by surprise
And at the moment that my camera happened to find you
There was just a trace of sorrow in your eyes

Now the things that I remember seem so distant and so small
Though it hasn't really been that long a time
What I was seeing wasn't what was happening at all
Although for a while, our path did seem to climb
But when you see through love's illusions, there lies the danger
And your perfect lover just looks like a perfect fool
So you go running off in search of a perfect stranger
While the loneliness seems to spring from your life
Like a fountain from a pool

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You've had to hide sometimes, but now you're all right
And it's good to see your smiling face tonight

Now for you and me it may not be that hard to reach our dreams
But that magic feeling never seems to last
And while the future's there for anyone to change, still you know it's seems
It would be easier sometimes to change the past
I'm just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you
In my lessons at love's pain and heartache school
Where if you feel too free and you need something to remind you
There's this loneliness springing up from your life
Like a fountain from a pool

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight

You've had to hide sometimes but now you're all right
And it's good to see your smiling face tonight

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You've had to struggle, you've had to fight
To keep understanding and compassion in sight
You could be laughing at me, you've got the right
But you go on smiling so clear and so bright