BME 301 Students – Are you losing faith in humanity because every other e-mail you receive is trying to rip you off or send you to some sick web site? I may have found the antidote to spam. Sign up for the poem-a-day e-mail from Random House. Just send a blank e-mail to sub_knopfpoetry@info.randomhouse.com. Today I received Verse for a Certain Dog by Dorothy Parker (see below). It almost makes up for all those Viagra ads…

Hello -

Verse for a Certain Dog
By Dorothy Parker

Such glorious faith as fills your limpid eyes,
Dear little friend of mine, I never knew.
All-innocent are you, and yet all-wise.
(For Heaven's sake, stop worrying that shoe!)
You look about, and all you see is fair;
This mighty globe was made for you alone.
Of all the thunderous ages, you're the heir.
(Get off the pillow with that dirty bone!)

A skeptic world you face with steady gaze;
High in young pride you hold your noble head;
Gayly you meet the rush of roaring days.
(Must you eat puppy biscuit on the bed?)
Lancelike your courage, gleaming swift and strong,
Yours the white rapture of a wingèd soul,
Yours is a spirit like a May-day song.
(God help you, if you break the goldfish bowl!)

"Whatever is, is good"—your gracious creed.
You wear your joy of living like a crown.
Love lights your simplest act, your every deed.
(Drop it, I tell you—put that kitten down!)
You are God's kindliest gift of all—a friend.
Your shining loyalty unflecked by doubt,
You ask but leave to follow to the end.
(Couldn't you wait until I took you out?)

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From DOGGEREL edited by Carmela Ciuraru © 2004. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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