Ed Ochester Presents a Poem by Alicia Suskin Ostriker

ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER

“Alicia was one of the first poets I recruited for the Pitt Poetry Series and we’ve been together for many books. I think of her as a life-giving poet, one of the best writing now in this country.”
—Ed Ochester

The Dogs at Live Oak Beach, Santa Cruz

As if there could be a world
Of absolute innocence
In which we forget ourselves

The owners throw sticks
And half-bald tennis balls
Toward the surf

And the happy dogs leap after them
As if catapulted—

Black dogs, tan dogs,
Tubes of glorious muscle—
Pursuing pleasure
More than obedience
They race, skid to a halt in the wet sand,
Sometimes they’ll plunge straight into
The foaming breakers

Like diving birds, letting the green turbulence
Toss them, until they snap and sink

Teeth into floating wood
Then bound back to their owners
Shining wet, with passionate speed
For nothing,
For absolutely nothing but joy.

"The Dogs at Live Oak Beach, Santa Cruz” from American Poetry Now
(ed. Ed Ochester) $27.95 • 408 pp.

Comments

[Laura Orem]

I love, love, LOVE this poem! Thanks for posting it.