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Friday, August 13, 2010

Poetry 108: Love That Dog


So I'm in third grade, and the elementary school librarian walks into the classroom for reading time with a small yellow book in hand. It's called Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech.


Love That Dog tells the story of a boy named Jack and his dog, Sky, written through poems that Jack writes for a school poetry assignment. I suppose by showing you guys Jack's poem "My Sky" it's kind of a spoiler, but if I'm going to include a poem from the book it pretty much has to be this one, cause it's definitely my favorite.


MY SKY: By Jack

We were outside
in the street
me and some other kids
kicking the ball
before dinner
and Sky was
chasing chasing chasing
with his feet going
every which way
and his tail
wag-wag-wagging
and his mouth
slob-slob-slobbering
and he was all over the place
smiling and wagging
and slobbering
and making us laugh
and my dad
came walking up the street
he was way down there
near the end
I could see him
after he got off the bus
and he was walk-walk-walking
and I saw him wave
and he called out
"Hey there, son!"
and so I didn't see
the car

coming from the other way
until someone else--
one of the big kids--
called out
"Car!"
and I turned around
and saw a
blue car blue car
splattered with mud
speeding down the road
And I saw Sky
going after the ball
wag-wag-wagging
his tail
and I called him
"Sky! Sky!"
and his turned his head
but it was too late because the
blue car blue car
splattered with mud
hit Sky
thud thud thud
and kept on going
in such a hurry
so fast
so many miles to go
it couldn't even stop
and

Sky

was just there
in the road
lying on his side

with his legs bent funny
and his side heaving

and he looked up at me
and I said
"Sky! Sky! Sky!"
and then my dad
was there
and he lifted Sky
out of the road
and laid him on the grass
and
Sky
closed his eyes
and
he
never
opened
them
again
ever.


Oh gosh, maybe it's just my inner third grader, but that poem still gets to me every single time! As you can imagine, that caused basically the entire third grade class to start bawling their eyes out, haha. But the book isn't all sad, don't worry. There are a lot of fun, lighthearted poems written by Jack about memories with him and Sky as well. If you're a dog lover, I think you'd appreciate this book of poetry as much as I do.

8 comments:

  1. so sweet. funny, a friend of mine just got a puppy that she named Sky.

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  3. Made me cry😭😓😩😢😓😪😥

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  4. It is so interesting when you read his final poem because he was always writing other small poems that added up to this. It was so sad when we read it in class, but I love his version of the poem, better than Walter Dean Myers' version.

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  5. Half my class cried including me, we read this in 4th grade and we do didn’t stop till dismissal time

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  6. so sorry about sky

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