Songs And A Poem for Dogs

 

Martha, my dear
You have always been my inspiration
Please, be good to me
Martha, my love
Don't forget me
Martha, my dear…

 

     It was mellow-rock day in our usually hip hop neighbor as the sun reluctantly peeked through the always-pregnant clouds and one of the songs that played was Barry Manilow's "Mandy" (Mr. Manilow’s first hit and the song that catapulted him into fame and fortune). I read some articles then that said he wrote it for his pet beagle, which turned out to be fake news as Mr. Manilow didn’t even write the song and it was just a cover (the song's original title was "Brandy" but he changed it to "Mandy" to avoid confusion with another song also named "Brandy").

     There are lots of songs written for dogs but the best , IMHO, and the most popular is “Martha My Dear” (the song written by Paul McCartney to his sheepdog named Martha (see photo above) and performed by The Beatles), it is melodic, lyrics are lovely and show Paul’s sweet devotion to his dog, the only lacking is the vocal harmony from the group. Even John Lennon was reportedly amazed on how Paul adored his dog.

     So now, I’m trying to also be creative for our dog and has been trying to write a poem. I’ve written a few lines, in fact:

Ako’y may alaga,

Asong mataba

Buntot ay mahaba,

Makinis ang mukha…

 

     I’m having difficulty writing the next lines, but somebody is already telling me that my poem sounds similar to another poem. Heck, the last thing I want is to be accused of plagiarism, so I replaced those lines with these lines.

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a dog

A dog whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast...