Book of Dog

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. CANISAnswerAnts Want My Yellow MothSong of If-OnlyDead FoxChipmunk in the PoolTheir ChamberWhen She Spoke, He Closed His EyesLabyrinthitisCanisInterstice1. Between Grief and Sorrow2. The Coldest Weather3. In the WoodsI Will Be GoodNew SnowEssential TremorIn LentOverII. BOOK OF DOGIII. ESSENTIAL TREMORMagnificenceDune ShackAloneTrue BugSalt Water DucksYour Body Betrays YouHolding OnBatReleaseMagnetWestern Conifer Seed BugDay Old MiceNew DogSurvival: A GuideTransformationThe WishBreakwaterRevenant

“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