Book Review/Dog Blessings
Dog Blessings
Poems, Prose and Prayers Celebrating Our Relationship with Dogs
Edited by June Cotner
New World Library
Hardcover $16
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
This is June Cotner’s 25th book, but she readily confesses that she was so taken while compiling “Dog Blessings,” that she ended up appreciating her two Golden Retrievers even more. “I didn’t think that was possible because I have always been a dog lover.” The book inspired her so much that she is now working on two more books dedicated solely to man’s best friends.
All of her books follow a similar format of collecting poems, prayers and prose about a particular subject, but this is the first of her books devoted entirely to dogs. She says in her opening “Letter to Readers,” that dogs have always played an important role in her life and wrote that her two dogs, Mary and Allante, lay at her feet as she wrote. The book reflects every phase of a dog’s life and has a particularly poignant chapter called “Partings,” describing one of the painful realities of being a dog owner, the fact that we most likely will outlive our canine companion.
I was impressed by 12-year-old Brennan Boyle’s poem, “Prayer for my Best Friend,” so much that I am reprinting it verbatim, with permission:
“Bless his nose, so wet and cold
Bless his fur, so soft to hold.
Bless his tail, it wags so strong
When I tell him to come along.
Bless those ears that stand so stout
Except when one’s turned inside out.
Bless those eyes so filled with love
That surely comes from God above
For up in Heaven the Angels sing,
They fly with harps on silver wings
But here on Earth there can be no doubt,
The Angels bark as they run about.”
Brennan is an 8th grader at Ann A. Mullen Middle School in Sicklerville, N. J. He said in an interview he wrote his first poem at age 7 when his grandmother died. He seldom, if ever, shared his poems with his classmates because “I just didn’t think it was a really big deal.”
Contributors to June’s book come from all walks of life. One of the contributors to “Dog Blessings” is
Donna J. Maebori of Beaverton, whose “My Elderly Dog,” a tribute to her faithful dog who gentled by age. She’s “blind. She’s deaf. And for hours sleeps,” but Donna pledges to give her “comfort rest, security…to crown her elder years with peace.”
Bernie Siegel, the medical doctor whose books have long brought comfort to the ill, has several contributions in the book one in which he declares that of all creatures are God’s masterpieces, but believes “members of the human race could use some spiritual touching up…Dogs definitely play a part as spiritual messengers with that touch up. Dogs are healers.” Dr. Siegel has a new book in print called “Buddy’s Candle,” a book dealing with death from a child’s perspective. Buddy is a dog.
There is much inspiration within the pages of June’s latest book with poems, prayers and prose, all relating to dogs. “There is much we can learn from dogs,” she writes. “Dogs go with the flow of life. When they have to go live in a new home with new people, they accept it, adapt easily and become happy in their new environment. When they grow old, they take it easy and don’t feel sorry for themselves. Many people wish they could be as good as their dogs. I know I do.”
Her fascination with dogs is leading her to two new projects, one she said is going to be a compilation of funny dog stories entitled “Good Dog! Bad Dog! Funny Dog!” “My goal,” she said is to create a book as humorous as John Grogan’s ‘Marley and Me.’” The other book project is entitled, “More than Just a Dog: Tributes to Our Dearest Friends.”
As in all her books, June accepts contributions. “At this early stage, I don’t have a word limit for either project,” she said, “but I will accept contributions.” Readers interested in either project should mail contributions to June Cotner, P.O. Box 2765, Poulsbo, WA 98370 accompanied with a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply.
(Bill Duncan can be reached by going to bduncan@nrtoday.com or by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470)