Dog Songs: Deluxe Edition Hardcover – October 16, 2014

I haven’t found a poem in this book that is not beautiful

I loved this collection of dog poems and stories. It was heartfelt, real, and full of love for this very special animal. It is a book that needs to be read over and over while your beloved dog is in your lap or cuddled at your feet

Mary Oliver is a national treasure and this collection of poems about dogs made me giggle and cry. This is a fabulous gift for anyone who loves and/or lives with a dog.

Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets, and this book is full of poems that really show she understands dogs! So enjoyable!

This collection of poems and prose is fittingly too short— much like the lives of the dogs we love. It’s a book to put on your shelf, gift to a friend who has lost a dog, and to curl up and read to your dog while watching the sun rise or set. Mary Oliver understands the power of loving a good dog and being lucky enough to have one love you back.

I read books, I click on stars to rate them, but I seldom have the words to describe the journey a certain book too me on. This book also. I can only scream to the world or whisper in your ear, that if you are a dog lover, you must -- MUST -- own this book, read it again and again, on dark rainy days inside, on a sunny day sitting on your patio, in a cafe where others sit on the sidewalk in those towns that love dogs so much they leave bowls of water sitting by the tables for the dogs whose owners bring them everywhere. Oh, my. I'm not sure any book I've ever read has transported me so completely to the dogs who've shared their lives with me, their playfulness, their wisdom, their steady love. And if you've never had the truest love you COULD ever have, if you've never shared your life with a dog, I dare you to read this book and not run out the door to find one to adopt.

Mary Oliver's DOG SONGS is a pure delight to read, particularly if you have had the good fortune to share your life with a dog or two - or perhaps even several, over a lifetime. Oliver has obviously done so, and she immortalizes a few of her favorites here: Percy, Ricky, Benjamin, Luke, and Bear. Her 'conversations' with Ricky, in pieces like "The Wicked Smile" and "You Never Know Where a Conversation Is Going to Go" made me smile. And "Every Dog's Story," about doggy nightmares and finding "a safe place," rings true and familiar. Just yesterday afternoon our little Emmy ran for her own "safe" place - a soft-sided 'cat cube' under a chair in the darkest corner of the guest room - when a frighteningly loud thunder and hail storm passed through.The Benjamin poems were especially affecting, both because of that dog's mysterious fears (brooms, kindling) from an unknown previous life, and also because of John Burgoyne's marvelous pen-and-ink drawings of that Beagle-like face and form. A dog who looked so much like my Daisy (1997-2011). And for anyone who has lost a loved dog, "Her Grave", "Percy (2002-2009)", and "The First Time Percy Came Back" will surely choke you up.The two short essays here, "Ropes" (about a time when dogs "roamed freely") and "Dog Talk" (an elegy to Ben and Bear and their wolf-like origins and instincts) are also especially effective, especially if you can remember those days when dogs were free to come and go about town. I was reminded of Willie Morris's lovely little memoir, MY DOG SKIP.I've wanted to read DOG SONGS ever since it first came out. Now I have. It's a little book; you can read it in about a half hour. But it will be one of those books I'll come back to many times, I'm pretty sure. I see now why it was a national bestseller. Its subject, its charm, its deceptive simplicity. Loved it!- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER

Arrived in good condition-- sweet thoughtful and interesting observations about her dog pals. I love Mary Oliver!

If you know someone who is inconsolable over the loss of their dog, or someone who just plain loves their dog, this is the present to buy them - even if they are the least poetic, dour Scotsman or unromantic Yorkshireman.I'm a Philistine - I'd never heard of Mary Oliver until I read a review of this book. I rarely read poetry. However, I do have a dog, my first ever, and I'm amazed at how he has opened my eyes to nature, to happiness, and to the friendliness of other people and dogs (not to mention sheep, cows, horses, alpacas and geese). I wish I knew what he was scenting when he's out on the moors and why he insists on lying in the coldest, frostiest patch of grass when the wind is blowing me over. The poems in this book go a little way to explaining what goes on in a dog's mind, and a good way into explaining why dogs mean so much to dog lovers.

I'm sorry, I love Mary Oliver's work and I love her too, but I was disappointed with this book, so much so that I gave it away a few days after receiving it. I was beguiled by the cover; it's a beautifully presented book with lovely illustrations but her writings aren't satisfying. Mary's Dog Songs are more prose than poetry, with some essays; comments and observations. It's not that I was expecting or wanting poetry, I just didn't find any of it particularly inspiring or any different from anything that anyone else may have written about dogs. I'm a huge dog fan; my dogs are the greatest joy in my life, and I'm also a fan of poetry and good literature, which is why I bought this book, but I feel it as a let down. Sorry Mary.

Mary Oliver wires often of her experiences with the natural world and the animal kingdom. This has the same feel but is centred on dogs she has known and loved. There is a great intimacy in her observations and a purity of honesty in her encounters and losses. Simple but so deeply felt and exquisitely expressed.

I ordered this for a friend when his dog died and I received this thank you : “Never was a book so apt! Just what I needed. Heartfelt thanks for the solace it brought.” And later, “Very impressed by her devotion to dogs.”

I love this collection about so many dogs that Mary Oliver owned in her lifetime, including friends' dogs. It made me nostalgic about my dog when I was little. It's easy to imagine the dogs and the personalities - a great book for dog lovers.