The Sweetness of Dogs

With the full moon illuminating the night sky, it is hard not to feel a quiet sense of awe.
In her poem "The Sweetness of Dogs," beloved poet Mary Oliver invites her rescue dog, Percy, to sit out on the sand with her to watch the moon rise over the water.

As she gazes up at the vastness of the universe, contemplating time, space, and her own small place within it,
Percy does something that completely shifts her perspective:
he leans against her and gazes up into her face.
To the cosmos, we may be just a tiny speck—but to our dogs, we are their entire sky.

Excerpt

“Thus we sit, I thinking how grateful I am for the moon’s
perfect beauty and also, oh! how rich it is to love the world.
Percy, meanwhile, leans against me and gazes up into my face.
As though I were his perfect moon.”

It is a beautiful reminder for any full moon evening:
While the world outside is vast and mysterious,
the unconditional devotion of a companion animal
grounds us right back in love.

👉 Read more about Mary Oliver's Dog Songs on The Marginalian

(Note: You can find "The Sweetness of Dogs" in Mary Oliver's book Dog Songs: Thirty-Five Dog Songs and One Essay, published by Penguin Press.)