From The Joy of Lex:
Life With A Service Dog
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INTRODUCTION
I
am not a master poet. Prose is my game. I am a frequent reader of
poetry, however, and I am drawn to the work of Donald Justice, T. S.
Eliot, Dryden and others. You will never hear me presume to explain why
any particular poem or poet is good. I only know what I like, and I
very much like John Thomas Clark’s sonnets about his assistance dog,
Lex.
On the subject of dogs, however, I am better versed than I
am in poetry. I have often written about dogs in novels and articles.
In my faith, there are differing opinions about whether these beautiful
and loving creatures have immortal souls, but the Church allows for the
possibility. I do not entertain that possibility: I embrace with
certainty the conviction that dogs have souls. We and our canine
companions are souls in transit from one life to another, and we share
a destiny.
Those dogs bred and raised and trained by Canine
Companions for Independence, as was Lex, are exceptional creatures. A
friend of ours, disabled by a spinal injury and confined to a
wheelchair, had such a singular and wonderful relationship with his
first assistance dog (now passed away) that he has said, given the
choice of never having been disabled or never having known that dog, he
would choose the dog and therefore the disability. This says more about
the human-dog bond than anything I could write on the subject in a
lifetime of writing.
My wife, Gerda, and I have been blessed
with two dogs released from the CCI program. When we lost the first,
Trixie, we felt as if we had lost a child, and the grief was deep and
lasting. The second, Anna, is only two and a half as I write this, and
her joy in every small detail of life sometimes brings tears of
happiness to my eyes.
In this collection of sonnets, John Thomas
Clark captures perfectly the details of his life with an assistance
dog, relishes the beauty of small moments, and celebrates the grace
that waits for us in every moment of the day if only we will open our
eyes and our hearts to the recognition of it.
– Dean Koontz, 2008
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Life With A Service Dog
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