Iowa Writes

ROLF GULLSTRöM-HUGHES
Memoirs of a Dog


I was born under Saturn, planet of melancholy. They gave me a man's face on the head of a dog-lion-wolf. Melancholics, they said, retain well owing to their hard and dry constitutions. For some are worn down like old walls in buildings; others are moister than they should be; others still are too hardened to receive an impression.


Let no body despise the presence of secret stimuli impressed on flowing waters. Such impressions are certain notice of an invisible world. That I converse with spirits, I cannot doubt, that the conversation itself has no permanence concerns me not.

About Iowa Writes

Since 2006, Iowa Writes has featured the work of Iowa-identified writers (whether they have Iowa roots or live here now) and work published by Iowa journals and publishers on The Daily Palette. Iowa Writes features poetry, fiction, or nonfiction twice a week on the Palette.

In November of 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world's third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

Iowa City has joined Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia as UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Find out more about submitting by contacting iowa-writes@uiowa.edu


ROLF GULLSTRöM-HUGHES

This poem originally appeared in Volume 5, Number 1 of 100 Words, a journal published by The University of Iowa's International Writing Program between 1993 and 1998. Each piece in the journal had to be 100 words or fewer, and each issue had a theme. This issue's theme was "On Memory."

This page was first displayed
on February 03, 2009

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