Joseph Duemer

DOG MUSIC: POETRY ABOUT DOGS, edited by Joseph Duemer and Jan Simmerman. I don't read a lot of poetry, but I do hug and kiss my dogs a lot, so this book called out to me with its cover photo of a Border Collie, head cocked inquisitively. -

There are well over a hundred poets represented in this anthology, and some of them have contributed more than one poem. I recognized only the obvious names - Elizabeth Bishop, Raymond Carver, Billy Collins, James Dickey, Donald Justice, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (I loved her book, THE HIDDEN LIFE OF DOGS), and John Updike. And I will readily confess I did not read every poem, only the ones that "spoke to me." And these were generally poems about loving and losing a dog, experiences I am all too familiar with. And there are quite a few of these - about dogs who wandered off to die, those hit by cars, dogs being 'put down,' dogs being buried, etc." It all sounds kinda grim, I know. And yes, some are hard to read, but even in spite of the heartbreak of losing a dog, which, given their shorter life span, is inevitable, you also will remember all the joy you got from your dog - or dogs, in my case.

I'm not going to quote any of the poems contained in this book, instead here's a line from one of the poets, Paul Mariani, that was NOT in a poem: "Aren't animals, dogs in particular, like angels sent among us to instruct us on the business of being human?"

My answer to that perhaps rhetorical question is an emphatic YES!
If you have lived with and loved a dog - or dogs (Runt, Heidi, Chico, Daisy, Barney, Mac, Emmy) - then I guarantee you'll find something you like in DOG MUSIC. Highly recommended.… (plus d'informations)

A beautiful tribute to one woman's two beloved dogs (Australian shepherds). Exquisite black-and-white photographs are paired with thoughtful, poetic sentiments on how dogs view and experience the world. It's one of those books you could read in ten minutes but spend much longer lingering over the pictures and pondering the prose. My favorite passages:

Dogs make little of our music, but scent is as obscure to us.

Dogs know the world cannot be described from any one position- that everything must be explored by many circumnavigations.

Because they do not read the future, common wisdom says dogs know nothing of death, that it takes them by surprise- but the seriousness with which they watch the night come on is rich with knowledge of the dark.

from the Dogear Diary… (plus d'informations)