The 25 poems of tenderness, humor, and pathos in Billy Collins's Dog Show celebrate the canine characteristics that resonate with humans most. These short, accessible verses are accompanied by artist Pamela Sztybel's striking full-color watercolor illustrations. Collins, the author of 15 poetry collections (Water, Water; Aimless Love) and a two-time United States Poet Laureate, dedicates Dog Show to 85 dogs, arranged alphabetically from Adele to Zeke.
The joy in dogs' carefree approach to life recurs in the poems. "Dharma" begins: "The way the dog trots out the front door/ every morning/ without a hat or an umbrella,/ without any money/ or the keys to her dog house/ never fails to fill the saucer of my heart/ with milky admiration." Collins ends the poem by acknowledging the dog owner's emotional dependence: "If only she were not so eager/ for a rub behind the ears,/ so acrobatic in her welcomes,/ if only I were not her god." He describes the "anthropomorphic skylarking" when a dog "will sometimes allow itself to be dressed up" and the contentment of breakfast time, when "we hold our mutual gaze,/ me reading his mind and he reading mine." Collins also honors the heartbreak of a beloved dog's passing, "when the collar/ is slipped,/ over his ears,/ and off his body,/ freeing him for good."
Dog Show's whimsical poems concisely reflect the canine-human relationship. Readers might even attach their own beloved canines' names to Sztybel's fetching, heartwarming portraits--the terrier with one cocked ear, the regal collie, the smiling beagle--whose intense eyes cast soulful gazes from the page. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.