The journey of my poem – Pompeii Dog

The poem, Pompeii Dog has been accepted by Moving Galleries and will appear in a Melbourne train carriage, to be read by commuters. Fantastic thought that, taking the poetry to the people. A journey that started on a bus in Italy.

At the Moving Galleries launch

On the Train

Finding Pompeii Dog

A few years ago, we were lucky enough to travel to Europe and spent two weeks in Italy. One dreary day we boarded a bus for a day trip to Pompeii. After the obligatory (buy something here or we won’t let you back on) stops, we arrived at a blue-sky Pompeii. It’s an amazing place, but having seen quite a number of ruins we were almost inured to the tragedy that occured here. It was just too hard to fathom, and we were distracted by the glimpses of life, rather than the horror of death.

Then I saw the dog. It was a cast of a dog also preserved by the ash and stone. It wasn’t on display really, but in a locked up cage that housed rows and rows of amphora and other artefacts in various states of repair. I wrote about it in my trip diary but also sketched out a poem about the dog. Somehow the dog’s obvious agony gave the human tragedy a voice.

Pompeii Dog

down ancient streets

along chariots worn in stone

past shop fronts with braziers

along walls stacked with amphora

by a brothel with how-to paintings

and political graffitied walls

ahead of grand amphitheatres

and bathhouse chambers warm cold and steaming

past forum fresco fountain

a dog lies

limbs extended torso twisted

twice preserved for eternity

once by a shower of pumice and ash

and again when skin and fur long gone

cast in plaster

his drawn-out inexplicable death

terrible plain

plainly terrible