Yoko

Thomas Gunn delivers a poem that delves deep into a dog’s mind capturing the unsophisticated boredom, anticipation, anxiety, and curiosity that all dogs must feel while locked up and restricted to a domestic life. “Yoko” begins with a visual and concrete image of a dog named Yoko awaiting the arrival of his master while lounging in a wardrobe. Without being able to release his stored energy, he occasionally “lumbers” across the room and drinks …

…author: Thom Gunn was born in 1929 in Britain. He completed two years of National Service in the British army and later received a degree at Cambridge University. His first book, Fighting Terms, was published in 1954, consisting of poems he had written as an undergraduate. The same year he became a graduate student at Stanford, and later started teaching at Berkeley, where he is a Senior Lecturer in English. He has lived in San Francisco since 1961.