Overview

Ghost Dogs, Dion O'Reilly's fine first poetry collection, will haunt you the way art should. Bristling with pain, wit, desire, and tenderness, these poems investigate not only ""the daily harms"" of an abusive childhood, but the deep solace non-human animals can offer. In vivid, sensual detail, O'Reilly conjures her companions: mastiffs with ""sad, sagging faces,"" a beloved chestnut mare's ""glowing coat,"" a green parrot who has managed to ""fill a space in the chaos."" She doesn't sugarcoat or flinch from suffering--her own or others'--she transforms it. Line by crackling line, image by unforgettable image. Contemplating her bruised knees in the poem ""Given,"" she asks, ""Is there a way to make it wonderful?"" Ghost Dogs provides us an answer, a resounding yes. --Ellen Bass

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9781947896239

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Reviews

"Ghost Dogs, Dion O'Reilly's fine first poetry collection, will haunt you the way art should. Bristling with pain, wit, desire, and tenderness, these poems investigate not only ""the daily harms"" of an abusive childhood, but the deep solace non-human animals can offer. In vivid, sensual detail, O'Reilly conjures her companions: mastiffs with ""sad, sagging faces,"" a beloved chestnut mare's ""glowing coat,"" a green parrot who has managed to ""fill a space in the chaos."" She doesn't sugarcoat or flinch from suffering--her own or others'--she transforms it. Line by crackling line, image by unforgettable image. Contemplating her bruised knees in the poem ""Given,"" she asks, ""Is there a way to make it wonderful?"" Ghost Dogs provides us an answer, a resounding yes. --Ellen Bass A coastal California ranch, a house full of mastiffs, a white hawk, a young woman running naked through the neighborhood at night. These poems dole out humor, surprise, and pathos in equal measure. O'Reilly's Ghost Dogs takes us to Alaska, the burn ward, the not-so-distant past. Even to the future. These poems are a testament to a wild brand of survival, of how to endure until you arrive, finally, at a place where you can ""live clean, /untouched and redeemed."" --Danusha Laméris Dion O'Reilly's Ghost Dogs is polished, powerful, and deeply rooted in the landscape of the Pacific West. The poems tell a compelling story of a life with many challenges, exalted by a sense of the marvelous. The writing sings with astonishingly fresh imagery and fully experienced emotion. Ghost Dogs gives a summation of a life, with the poet finding wells of emotion in the most unlikely places--a pig about to be shot by a butcher or a thumb sucked into adulthood. There is a fierce appetite in this book, a hunger for the depths and heights of human experience, described with abandon mixed with great refinement. --Zack Rogow"

Ghost Dogs, Dion O'Reilly's fine first poetry collection, will haunt you the way art should. Bristling with pain, wit, desire, and tenderness, these poems investigate not only the daily harms of an abusive childhood, but the deep solace non-human animals can offer. In vivid, sensual detail, O'Reilly conjures her companions: mastiffs with sad, sagging faces, a beloved chestnut mare's glowing coat, a green parrot who has managed to fill a space in the chaos. She doesn't sugarcoat or flinch from suffering--her own or others'--she transforms it. Line by crackling line, image by unforgettable image. Contemplating her bruised knees in the poem Given, she asks, Is there a way to make it wonderful? Ghost Dogs provides us an answer, a resounding yes. --Ellen Bass A coastal California ranch, a house full of mastiffs, a white hawk, a young woman running naked through the neighborhood at night. These poems dole out humor, surprise, and pathos in equal measure. O'Reilly's Ghost Dogs takes us to Alaska, the burn ward, the not-so-distant past. Even to the future. These poems are a testament to a wild brand of survival, of how to endure until you arrive, finally, at a place where you can live clean, /untouched and redeemed. --Danusha Lameris Dion O'Reilly's Ghost Dogs is polished, powerful, and deeply rooted in the landscape of the Pacific West. The poems tell a compelling story of a life with many challenges, exalted by a sense of the marvelous. The writing sings with astonishingly fresh imagery and fully experienced emotion. Ghost Dogs gives a summation of a life, with the poet finding wells of emotion in the most unlikely places--a pig about to be shot by a butcher or a thumb sucked into adulthood. There is a fierce appetite in this book, a hunger for the depths and heights of human experience, described with abandon mixed with great refinement. --Zack Rogow

Author Information

Dion O'Reilly has lived most of her life on a small farm in the Soquel Valley of California. She has studied with Ellen Bass and Danusha Laméris and received her MFA from Pacific University. For over thirty years, she worked as a school teacher, also leading private groups for her high school students. Her poetry and essays have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, New Letters, Sugar House Review, Rattle, The Sun, Bellingham Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Catamaran, SWWIM, Grist, and other literary journals and anthologies. She is a member of The Hive Poetry Collective which produces podcasts highlighting poets from the Monterey Bay and around the world. She hosts classes for adults on her farm. Ghost Dogs is her debut full-length collection.

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