This poem was published in The Avenue Journal, Issue X: Dogs
What A Dog Knose
John Delaney
Things have less to say
but more to tell
when they spell
in smell.
Homebodies all,
we dwell
in our smell.
Sounds and sights might shout,
but a smell
can yell.
Sick or well
sell smell.
No heaven, no hell.
Just smell.
John Delaney’s publications include Waypoints (2017), a collection of place poems, Twenty Questions (2019), a chapbook, Delicate Arch (2022), poems and photographs of national parks and monuments, Galápagos (2023), a collaborative chapbook of his son Andrew’s photographs and his poems, Nile (2024), poems and photographs about Egypt, and Filing Order: Sonnets (2025). He lives in Port Townsend, WA.
You can purchase The Avenue Journal Issue X: Dogs in paperback at Bookshop.org, or, if you prefer it in digital format, you can download the ebook in .epub format for pay-what-you-can (suggested donation $9) at ko-fi.