"Dog Walk with Sadie Through a Track List of Tribute Album Covers," "Ghost-Dog Walk with Sadie Through the Poemscape," and "Ghost-Dog Road Trip Where Sadie Through a History of Cassandras"

Dog Walk with Sadie Through a Track List of Tribute Album Covers

The ghost of my white German shepherd greets me at the threshold of a dream about one headlight and a silver Judas. No one cares about railroads anymore, she says. But the river knows your name. I miss the long walks we took down brickyard roads. How we mocked the fortunate sons with their Magdalene Laundries and fleets of six white Cadillacs. She asks if I’ve had a drink named after me. Only the Ringneck Loon, I reply. Her spirit vanishes into a Memphis limousine and emerges beside me at a wedding in Funeralville. She wonders why so many songs are written about Babylon. Why we never returned to Mendocino with its mad hatters and Mona Lisas. I confess I squandered my wild card falling into the blues on my ceiling, as we mosey through Once upon a Time in the West, exiting at a drive-in theater during the Festival of Hollow Grievances. We’re stuck inside Memphis with the Mobile blues again. Renaming animals and lighting wheels on fire. Sadie behind her Liz Taylor sunglasses. Me with my lilac wine. She says, You can’t unring a bell. But I’m a red Cadillac with a black mustache, and she’s a famous blue raincoat, an angel of the morning quoting the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed is the poet of wild horses and broken bicycles, she prays. I say, Don’t interrupt the sorrow. Don’t tell me how the story ends.

Ghost-Dog Walk with Sadie Through the Poemscape

The ghost of my white German shepherd flowed through the walls of the Octopus Museum where she had toured the Gallery of Postcards and Ridiculous Maps. As we rendezvoused at the corner of American Faith and Goblin Market, she said, We all live in a foreign country, but I’m not hiding my hunger anymore. I’d been reading a guide to wandering without purpose while living in a house with only an attic and a basement. But on this anniversary of the misbehavior of clocks, we set out in search of small, buried things across a landscape infamous for headless mothers. Sadie asked if I ever proved my Midwest Gothic theories about days of shame and failure. Told me America is an island off the coast of France. We stumbled past angel bones and undolls on our trek through another hard-love province. Our hearts like windows, our mouths like cliffs. Sadie thought we’d get lucky in Rusted City. But an ugly music pursued us with its black balloons. Where are the snows? my dog asked, and, between rhino crashes and visits from the last Minotaur, I insisted that every love story is an apocalypse. That every dance in the Möbius Strip Club of Grief costs a quarter. We stopped in the Village of Knives to wait for light to be built. Sadie slipped her head under my hand, the signal to scratch her ears. In a place called No Homeland, there is no such thing as distance, she sighed, What makeshift instructions could you offer vigilant girls? Beneath a magnolia canopy, the woman who’d married a bear promised things more beautiful than blue horses. In this lateness of the world, we dreamed our animal selves.

Ghost-Dog Road Trip Where Sadie Through a History of Cassandras

I motored our grit-pocked Silverado through an autumn of white skies swirling with wondrous, tangerine birds. “What do you talk about when you talk about books,” Sadie asked. By now, my spirit dog and I had accepted our improbable destinies. Memos on how to fix the road to the future from the Ministry for the Future. Queries hinting at Shakespeare’s presence in a divided America. Rumors of a raised Lazarus spying on whales. “About The Book of Merlyn,” I answered. “The entangled lives of code breakers.” I shifted the truck into the past beneath a veil of smoke and ash. I was still clinging to a pie-and-pastry bible, while Sadie insisted two trees make a forest. And that the past is never silent. “Let’s bring back lost languages,” she said. “If we look into the faces of America, we’ll discover where the past begins.” I eased the Silverado into the present where small odysseys remained stalled at an empire’s crossroads.  The heartbeat of Wounded Knee was all that stood between the Angel of History and the Age of Greed. “We left too many histories unread,” she said. “The lost history of stars. The secret history of love. The history of living forever.” We slept on the dark end of a street with no name and awakened beneath the statues of false heroes. “Who ate the first oyster?” I asked. As she rolled in a trumpet of moonflowers, Sadie answered, “How was the art of walking lost?” Around us, a blank slate laid between a lost species and the last migration. Our turn to reinvent yesterday had arrived. 

Credits for "Dog Walk with Sadie Through a Track List of Tribute Album Covers"

“Book of Dreams,” Dion, Light of Day: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen
“One Headlight,” The Wallflowers, T. Bone Burnett: The Producer
“Golden Tom Silver Judas,” The New Basement Tapes, Lost on the River: The New Basement Tape
“Nobody Cares about the Railroads Anymore,” The Wiyos, This Is the Town: A Tribute to Nilsson, Volume 1
“The River Knows Your Name,” Colin Linden, Rollin’ into Memphis: Songs of John Hiatt
“Brickyard Road,” Johnny Van Zant, Lynyrd Skynyrd Family
“Fortunate Son,” John Fogerty, Songs and Artists That Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11
“The Magdalene Laundries,” Emmylou Harris, Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration
“Six White Cadillacs,” Burning Jet Black, To Emmylou
“Yes I Guess They Oughta Name a Drink after You,” Tyler Childers, Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows, Songs of John Prine, Volume 2
“Ringneck Loon,’’ Carla Olson, Ladies Sing Lightfoot
“Baby Took a Limo to Memphis,” Rosie Flores, This One’s for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark
“Wedding Day in Funeralville,” Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows, Songs of John Prine
“Babylon Sisters,” David Garfield, Maestros of Cool: A Tribute to Steely Dan
“Mendocino,” Augie Meyers, and Shaun Sahm, Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm
“Talk to Me of Mendocino,” Norah Jones, Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle
“Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” Maren Morris, Restoration: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin
“Wild Card in the Hole,” Madeleine Peyroux, Note of Hope
“Blues on the Ceiling,” Mandy Marylane, Everybody’s Talkin’: A Tribute to Fred Neil
“Drive-In Movie,” Hillbilly Winos, The Songs of Fred Eaglesmith: A Tribute
“Once upon a Time in the West,” Bruce Springsteen, We All Love Ennio Morricone
“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Your Grievance,” “Clem Snide, The Late Great Daniel Johnston, Discovered Covered
“Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,” Cat Power, I’m Not There
“Man Gives Names to All the Animals,” Sayfi Mohamed Tahar, From Another World, A Tribute to Bob Dylan
“This Wheel’s on Fire,” Guster, Endless Highway: The Music of the Band
“Sunglasses,” Claudia Church, A Tribute to John D. Loudermilk
“Lilac Wine,” Camille, Round Nina: A Tribute to Nina Simone
“You Can’t Unring a Bell,” These Immortal Souls, Step Right Up: The Songs of Tom Waits
“Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache,” John Paul Keith, Red Hot: A Memphis Celebration of Sun Records
“Famous Blue Raincoat,” Marissa Nadler, Hallelujah: The Songs of Leonard Cohen
“Angel of the Morning,” Merrilee Rush, Wild Thing: The Songs of Chip Taylor
“The Sermon on the Mount,” Merle Haggard, The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
“The Poet Game,” Ani Difranco, Going Driftless, An Artist’s Tribute to Greg Brown
“Wild Horses,” Otis Clay, Songs of the Rolling Stones: All Blues’d Up!
“Broken Bicycles,” Botanica, New Coat of Paint: Songs of Tom Waits
“Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow,” Brad Mehldau, A Tribute to Joni Mitchell
“Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends,” Kris Kristofferson, The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson 

Credits for "Dog Walk with Sadie Through the Poemscape"

The Octopus Museum: Poems, Brenda Shaughnessy
The Gallery of Postcards and Maps, Susan Rich
Ridiculous Light: Poems, Valencia Robin
American Faith, Maya C. Pope
Goblin Market, the Prince’s Progress and Other Poems, Christina Rossetti
Sometimes We’re All Living in a Foreign Country, Rebecca Morgan Frank
I’m Not Trying to Hide My Hungers from the World, Kendra DeColo
Holoholo, Barbara Hamby
A House with Only an Attic and a Basement, Kathryn Maris
The Behavior of Clocks, Sally Ashton
Small, Buried Things: Poems, Debra Marquart
Landscape with Headless Mama, Jennifer Givhan,
How to Prove a Theory, Nicole Tong
Midwest Gothic: Poems, Laura Donnelly
Days of Shame and Failure, Jennifer Knox
America That Island off the Coast of France, Jesse Lee Kercheval,
Angel Bones, Ilyse Kusnetz
Undolls, Tanya Grae
Hard Love Province, Marilyn Chin
Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff, Sara Borjas
Getting Lucky, Nicole Steinberg
The Rusted City: A Novel in Poems, Rochelle Hurt
Ugly Music, Diannelly Antigua
Balloon Pop Outlaw Black, Patricia Lockwood
Outlandish Blues, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Hardly War, Don Lee Choi
Where Are the Snows, Kathleen Rooney
A Crash of Rhinos: Poems, Paisley Rekdal
Visiting the Minotaur, Claire Williamson
Every Love Story Is an Apocalypse Story, Donna Vorreyer
Sixty-Cent Coffee and a Quarter to Dance, Judy Jordan
The Möbius Strip Club of Grief, Bianca Stone
The Village of Knives, Helli Fang
While Light Is Built, Tedi López Mills
A Place Called No Homeland, Kai Cheng Thom
No Such Thing As Distance, Karen Paul Holmes
Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls: Poems, Erika Meitner
A Place Called No Homeland, Kai Cheng Thom
No Such Thing As Distance, Karen Paul Holmes
Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls: Poems, Erika Meitner
Magnolia Canopy Otherworld, Erin Carlyle
the woman who married a bear, Annie Haven McDonnell
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce, Morgan Parker
Blue Horses Rush In, Luci Tapahonso
In the Lateness of the World, Carolyn Forché
Dreaming My Animal Selves, Hélène Cardona.

Credits for "Ghost-Dog Road Trip with Sadie Through a History of Cassandras"

A History of Loneliness, John Boyle
Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Colbert
The Wonder of Birds, Jim Robbins
What We Talk About When We Talk About Books, Leah Price
Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution, Jonathan Losos\
How to Fix the Future, Andrew Keen
The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson
Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future, James S. Shapiro
Raising Lazarus, Beth Macy
Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth’s Most Awesome Creatures, Nick Pyenson
The Book of Merlyn, T. H. White
Entangled Lives: Human-Animal-Plant Histories of the Eastern Himalayan Triangle, Joy L. K. Pachuau and Willem Schendel
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, Walter Isaacson
Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ash, Tammy Pasterick
The Pie and Pastry Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum
Two Trees Make a Forest, Jessica J. Lee
The Past Is Never, Tiffany Quay Tyson
Let’s Bring Back the Lost Language Edition: A Collection of Forgotten-Yet -Delightul Words, Phrases, Praises, Insults, Idioms, and Literary Flourishes from Eras Past, Lesly M. M. Blume
Faces of America: How 12 Extraordinary People Discovered Their Pasts, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Where the Past Begins: Memory and Imagination, Amy Tan
Small Odysseys: Selected Shorts Presents 35 New Stories, Hannah Tinti, editor
Empire’s Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day, Carrie Gibson
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, David Treur
The Angel of History, Carolyn Forché
The Age of Greed, Jeff Maverick
The Lost History of Stars, Dave Boling
The History of Love, Nicole Krause
The History of Living Forever, Jake Wolff
At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, Danielle L. McGuire
Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir, Andrew Dickos
In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History, Mitch Landreau
Who Ate the First Oyster? The Extraordinary People Behind the Greatest Firsts in History, Cody Cassidy
The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, and Literature of Pedestrianism, Geoff Nicholson
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, Steven Pinker
Lost Species, Jess French
The Last Migration, Charlotte McConaghy
The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000 Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection, Tamil Ansary