{"product_id":"wuensche-paul-dear-dog","title":"Wuensche, Paul: Dear Dog","description":"\u003cp\u003eBox Turtle Press, paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: May 31, 2026\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublisher Marketing: \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eDear Dog\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ein hand, one of the most beautiful first books of poetry ever produced, we sit and read in an English garden, guarded by stone lions. Paul Wuensche is a painter as well as a poet and much as he wants to keep the two separate, these poems paint pictures. They are painterly, with gorgeous brushstrokes.\" Give an old lady a stick\/And a wheelchair\/And she can sit like Lincoln\/Who overlooks that long lake\/And the strange obelisk —.\" The beauty of the painting on the cover tells a lot about the beauty of the work inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe title poem is about a dog who is gone (\"Many dog years\/Have whizzed by\/Since I had to let you go\"), and the poet recalls a garden party on his beloved dog's last week: \"We made fun of you I'm afraid,\/Gave you a newspaper to read\/Dark glasses to wear\/And you looked like an old man\/Who didn't understand children's games.\" One reader burst into tears.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe poems are far-ranging in subject. History, nature, love, medical procedures, a remote funeral (\"Trust me to be late to a funeral\/In my own room\/On my own laptop\"), age, brothers, friendship.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough the poems seem universal or general, with each there is the shock of intimacy. And the intimacy itself is surprising: \"I like to watch her\/Even at night, when she sits in\/Her little office far too late\/And fills up neat rows\/And columns on spreadsheets....Beside her on the desk\/The mug says\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eBest accountant\/in the world\u003c\/i\u003e.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWuensche tell us:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"I've always chosen as friends\/One or two old enough\/to know their lives\/Are soon to be rounded off,\" and then there is a startling image: \"Their borrowed flesh\/Soon to be returned,\/Like a folded prison uniform.\" He hopes to learn from them \"by some silent gesture of the hands -\/Like someone modelling a vase in wet clay,\/The slim, elegant shape\/Of all that matters in life.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is still time for him, and for us. You will find that slim, elegant shape, all that matters in life, in this book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45228730646551,"sku":"9781893654426","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0004\/6497\/7956\/files\/9781893654426ita_700x_ff3d37a1-41bc-4d97-804d-6a9c4b1946ad.jpg?v=1781812967","url":"https:\/\/open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com\/products\/wuensche-paul-dear-dog","provider":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","version":"1.0","type":"link"}