Ghost Dogs

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