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Influenced by survival lessons from the natural world, Cleopatra Mathis’ Book of Dog traces a harrowing personal journey from hard endings—a divorce, the death of a beloved dog—to the fierce arrival of acceptance and change. All manner of life thrives in these pages–plovers, foxes, the companionable beetle on the bedpost, and the coyotes just beyond her back door. This poet’s discerning eye, focused on the stringent truth of what she sees around her, aims outward and refuses the sentimental. Throughout the search, she is guided by the unbounded faithfulness and wisdom of her noble and comic companions on the path.
Price: $14.95
Pages: 64
Publisher: Sarabande Books
Imprint: Sarabande Books
Publication Date:
18 December 2012
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781936747474
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
“Animals dominate this humane and serious sixth collection from Mathis, at first in the chill forests of New England, and then in and around the sea.... Mathis’s pages show heart, observation, and thought; they also show a loneliness, and a sense of lost human connection assuaged by instinct, by ‘her own animal self.’”
—Publishers Weekly
“These restrained, razor-sharp poems about human pain and the psyche’s attempts to ride it are for all poetry readers.”
—Library Journal
"I love this book! And haven't been able to say so about any book so unequivocally for a long time. Not only has Mathis found subjects that impel her toward writing that's both deep and poignant, but she's not afraid of registering sentiment right up to the almost unbearable edge. The creatures for which she has so much intelligent and well-wrought empathy, we suspect arise out of a profound sympathy with the travails of simply being alive, but there's no self-pity here, just what feels acute and often painful, and beautiful accuracy."
—Stephen Dunn
"From time to time, all too rarely, we come upon a book that reminds us why we go to poetry in the first place. Why, amid the depredations of time and faithlessness and the stark indifference of the gods, we still seek solace in language and clarity of mind. Book of Dog is just such a reminder. These elegant, heart-wrought poems were written by a lyricist at the height of her powers. I will turn to them again and again."
—Linda Gregerson
“This book makes me feel. It makes me hurt. And, in a crucial completion of a job well done, Book of Dog helps me understand the sources of these feelings.... I am enthralled with the delicate way Mathis handles the world in these poems. I can see how deeply she cares for it. As you read Book of Dog, you will too.”
—Camille T. Dungy, The Rumpus
—Publishers Weekly
“These restrained, razor-sharp poems about human pain and the psyche’s attempts to ride it are for all poetry readers.”
—Library Journal
"I love this book! And haven't been able to say so about any book so unequivocally for a long time. Not only has Mathis found subjects that impel her toward writing that's both deep and poignant, but she's not afraid of registering sentiment right up to the almost unbearable edge. The creatures for which she has so much intelligent and well-wrought empathy, we suspect arise out of a profound sympathy with the travails of simply being alive, but there's no self-pity here, just what feels acute and often painful, and beautiful accuracy."
—Stephen Dunn
"From time to time, all too rarely, we come upon a book that reminds us why we go to poetry in the first place. Why, amid the depredations of time and faithlessness and the stark indifference of the gods, we still seek solace in language and clarity of mind. Book of Dog is just such a reminder. These elegant, heart-wrought poems were written by a lyricist at the height of her powers. I will turn to them again and again."
—Linda Gregerson
“This book makes me feel. It makes me hurt. And, in a crucial completion of a job well done, Book of Dog helps me understand the sources of these feelings.... I am enthralled with the delicate way Mathis handles the world in these poems. I can see how deeply she cares for it. As you read Book of Dog, you will too.”
—Camille T. Dungy, The Rumpus
Cleopatra Mathis was born and raised in Ruston, Louisiana. The author of six books of poems, her work has appeared widely in anthologies, textbooks, magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, Poetry, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, The Made Thing: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern Poetry, and The Extraordinary Tide: Poetry by American Women. Prizes for her work include two National Endowment for the Arts grants, the Jane Kenyon Award, the Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poets Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Robert Frost Award, and fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, and the New Jersey State Arts Council. Mathis is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College, where she directs the creative writing program. She lives with her family in Hanover, New Hampshire.
I. CANIS
Answer
Ants Want My Yellow Moth
Song of If-Only
Dead Fox
Chipmunk in the Pool
Their Chamber
When She Spoke, He Closed His Eyes
Labyrinthitis
Canis
Interstice
1. Between Grief and Sorrow
2. The Coldest Weather
3. In the Woods
I Will Be Good
New Snow
Essential Tremor
In Lent
Over
II. BOOK OF DOG
III. ESSENTIAL TREMOR
Magnificence
Dune Shack
Alone
True Bug
Salt Water Ducks
Your Body Betrays You
Holding On
Bat
Release
Magnet
Western Conifer Seed Bug
Day Old Mice
New Dog
Survival: A Guide
Transformation
The Wish
Breakwater
Revenant
Answer
Ants Want My Yellow Moth
Song of If-Only
Dead Fox
Chipmunk in the Pool
Their Chamber
When She Spoke, He Closed His Eyes
Labyrinthitis
Canis
Interstice
1. Between Grief and Sorrow
2. The Coldest Weather
3. In the Woods
I Will Be Good
New Snow
Essential Tremor
In Lent
Over
II. BOOK OF DOG
III. ESSENTIAL TREMOR
Magnificence
Dune Shack
Alone
True Bug
Salt Water Ducks
Your Body Betrays You
Holding On
Bat
Release
Magnet
Western Conifer Seed Bug
Day Old Mice
New Dog
Survival: A Guide
Transformation
The Wish
Breakwater
Revenant