A Dog's Life 7

Of all the habits I have, both good and bad, the habit of the early morning walk is the most entrenched and the most important. Abby is the third dog I've walked through life with, on pavement and dirt, in rain and sun, through traffic and fields, but the constant is always the morning walk. For 19 years, my best days begin with a walk first thing in the morning with a dog.
Whenever I need to express something in poetry, I turn to the American poet Mary Oliver:

Every morning 

the world

is created.

Under the orange

sticks of the sun

the heaped ashes

of the night

turn into leaves again...

If it is your nature 

to be happy

you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination

alighting everywhere...

(Excerpts from Mary Oliver's "Morning Poem")