Dog Songs by Mary Oliver is a poetry collection centering and celebrating the beloved four-legged friends that Oliver loves. Not all of the dogs are still alive, but her love for them, evident through the poems, never wavers.
This poetry collection was the most comprehensive I probably have ever read. I didn't feel like there was language that made the meaning or themes difficult to understand. The goal of the collection to me was to show love for the poet's dogs and remind the reader of how amazing our own dogs are. Oliver incorporates the lessons she's learned from her dogs, such as taking things slower and being present in the moment, into her poems as well as pictures of the dogs on each page, which was really sweet.
Oliver writes about her dogs with so much care and love throughout the collection that it's evident how much they matter to her. She also finds a way to speak about the human condition through her dogs, which I found intriguing.
I read this book with a couple of my sorority sisters as our April book club book for National Poetry Month, and it was really well loved by all of us. This isn't a collection I normally would have picked to read on my own, but I'm glad that I did.
Have you read Dog Songs? What did you think?
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