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A review by indahmarwan
Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
5.0
It has been a while I read poetry. When this book is available for e-ARC on @netgalley, I was bought by the lovely cover of sketched dog and I googled a bit about the author, Mary Oliver.
When I started reading this collection of poetry and prose about dogs, there was an issue of a Indonesian Niqabi woman who creates a shelter for 70 dogs in her own property. The debate was revolved around haram or halal and Islam is hostile to dogs resulting in the rejection of the neighbourhood of her and her shelter. I found it sad because she manages the shelter appropriately in terms of the sanitary and the health of the dogs and the fact that she does not only take care of dogs but also tens of cats and chicken.
I can recall the Islamic fable of a prostitute and a thirsty dog or the story of People of the Cave in surah Al-Kahf on how the dog stretched out in the entrance of the cave to keep these People from intruders. I was wondering when and why does Islam become vicious to dogs?
I am more like a dog person than a cat person. Probably because my father used to pet dogs (& never a cat) when I was little.
I found it so lovely that it comes with illustration of different types of dogs. The poetry and prose talk about the long-lasting friendship of dogs and the dog friends (Ms. Oliver doesn’t use the term of dog owner!♥️). In some of poetry, the dogs become friends with other dogs, the feeling of dogs being free in the nature, the loss when our dog dies and the sadness of Ms. Oliver seeing dogs who are always on leash and thinking that it is a kind of torture for the dog.
My favorite poetry, is Ricky Talks about Talking when Ms. Oliver talks to her new dog Ricky on how to understand him better as she is his new dog friend and Ricky answers to really ‘listen’ and they come to conclusion that to really ‘listen’ is to be present there when someone is talking showing that they care to each other. It really touched my heart. It was a conversation between human and dog. I found it funny when we can understand our pets better. But have we really ‘listen’ when we talk to other human?
When I started reading this collection of poetry and prose about dogs, there was an issue of a Indonesian Niqabi woman who creates a shelter for 70 dogs in her own property. The debate was revolved around haram or halal and Islam is hostile to dogs resulting in the rejection of the neighbourhood of her and her shelter. I found it sad because she manages the shelter appropriately in terms of the sanitary and the health of the dogs and the fact that she does not only take care of dogs but also tens of cats and chicken.
I can recall the Islamic fable of a prostitute and a thirsty dog or the story of People of the Cave in surah Al-Kahf on how the dog stretched out in the entrance of the cave to keep these People from intruders. I was wondering when and why does Islam become vicious to dogs?
I am more like a dog person than a cat person. Probably because my father used to pet dogs (& never a cat) when I was little.
I found it so lovely that it comes with illustration of different types of dogs. The poetry and prose talk about the long-lasting friendship of dogs and the dog friends (Ms. Oliver doesn’t use the term of dog owner!♥️). In some of poetry, the dogs become friends with other dogs, the feeling of dogs being free in the nature, the loss when our dog dies and the sadness of Ms. Oliver seeing dogs who are always on leash and thinking that it is a kind of torture for the dog.
My favorite poetry, is Ricky Talks about Talking when Ms. Oliver talks to her new dog Ricky on how to understand him better as she is his new dog friend and Ricky answers to really ‘listen’ and they come to conclusion that to really ‘listen’ is to be present there when someone is talking showing that they care to each other. It really touched my heart. It was a conversation between human and dog. I found it funny when we can understand our pets better. But have we really ‘listen’ when we talk to other human?