Dying Dog Poems by Lynne Schmidt

Lynne Schmidt‘s writing is both tender and fierce as they explore the metaphysical, death-defying connection between a dog and their human. Dying Dog Poems juxtaposes the complexity of human relationships with the simple and symbiotic ones that we have with our canine companions. Schmidt explores family & personal history to reveal Kyla, and others, as protector and confidant, through anecdotes and images of well-worn harnesses, clouded eyes, and coiled tails. Dying Dog Poems is a testament to the interconnectedness of grief, love, and hope, ultimately showing that while our companions are mortal, their love is eternal. In Lynne’s own words, “This Isn’t Goodbye, This Is See You Soon.”

–Alison Lubar, author of Philosophers Know Nothing About Love, queer feast, sweet euphemism, It Skips a Generation, and METAMOURPHOSIS

Lynne Schmidt‘s Dying Dog Poems is a breathtaking collection that captures the liminal space between life and death. While there are many poets who write celebrations of living dogs or odes to dearly departed canine friends, Schmidt’s poems manage to sit in that complicated space in the middle, capturing the heartbreak, guilt, sorrow, and gratitude that comes with the end of a life. Never before have I read work that so accurately expresses that feeling of pre-grieving, and the deep, neverending affection that can only be for a dog who has loved you unconditionally. Dying Dog Poems puts into words some of the most complex and challenging feelings a dog person can experience. Schmidt is both articulate and compassionate, and reading their work soon after having to euthanize my own dog, I am especially thankful for these poems.

–E.B. Bartels, author of Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here And Hereafter

Reverberating with the objects of a dog’s life—leashes, toys, beds, and bowls—the intimacy and grief expressed in Lynne Schmidt‘s collection for animals (and those who want to be) is as true as any whose “face once rest[ed] beside [ours] on the pillow.” Schmidt’s meditation on canine love— “body so full of love/it rattles like a toy” —and the love we have for canines whose weight we “carry” with us throughout their lives and beyond their deaths and “repeat for every dog [we] will ever own,” is a moving reminder that the connection humans have to the animal world is unassailable.

–Deirdre Fagan, author of Phantom Limbs and Find a Place for Me