Stanza 1
In the Beginning was the bark
And the bark was with Dog, and the bark was Dog
All jarring atoms coalescing
At bark’s first alluring call
That sweet voice called them all together,
Assembled chaos from their strife.
Then did the trees, the air, the seas
Assemble in one whole
Called to communion by the bark.
And from this heavenly harmony
All that you know as life,
Each pitch, each timbre, each vibration
Connected to make one creation.
Stanza 2
What action can’t our voices start or end!
When Lassie’s song did first ascend,
Her canine bandmates ceased their yap,
Their jaws together did descend
Their paws together tried to clap
For all the sounds they’d heard before to blend
In overtones the soul to mend
They could but faintly apprehend
What action can’t our voices start or end!
Stanza 3
Chihuahua-like shrieking –
We shoot up our ears
Such shrieks send us seeking
The source of such fears.
The Shepherd’s basso basso growl
Calls us to the fray –
Too late now to pray;
Bite, bite, for it’s too late to howl.
Stanza 4
The muzzle-lowered sigh
in faintest tones reveals
the longing lover feels
His desperate love will never fructify.
Stanza 5
Desperate whines announce
The anguish separated lovers
Feel, the desperate hope that hovers
Until the anguished one discovers
She’s given him the bounce.
Stanza 6
But oh! if we in song
Unite, then, before long
The very stars grow brighter.
Our holy howls that need no words,
Melodies that need no writer
Make still the very birds.
Stanza 7
As the bright star that bears our name
Signaled the time when sweet summer came
As if at our command,
So, at the sound of our melodious band
All rabbits, voles, and field mice froze in place,
Suspended in both time and space,
Alert to impending Grace.
Grand Chorus
At that first bark-engendered motion
In all things great and small,
Each rivulet, each stream and ocean
Came running to Dog’s call:
So, when Dog’s ready to close the store,
And howls his “Finis” to the score,
Engendering universal groans
In universal joints and bones,
The universe will be no more.
