Darling, I Love You: Poems from the Hearts of Our Glorious Mutts and All Our Animal Friends by Daniel Ladinsky, Patrick McDonnell
My rating: 3/5 cats
sean of the house gave me this book as a no-reason midweek present. and while i am a fan and supporter of the practice of unexpected gifts, this was just an okay read. i definitely understand why he got it for me—it’s full of cute drawings of dogs and cats accompanied by poems about dogs and cats and the pet-loving experience, which are things all over my wheelhouse, but the poems were just a little greeting card-sweet for my tastes.
i wasn’t expecting doom and gloom and heavy themes or anything, but this is a primarily religious/spiritual appreciation of animals, while my own is an appreciation grounded more in the secular “wookit its TUMMY!” way, not “wookit the tummy that god hath wrought.”
or, to use an actual example:
they aren’t all religious, and it’s a mixture of spiritual thought both eastern and western, so it doesn’t feel like proselytizing or anything, but a poem that opens with this:
and closes with this:
just isn’t to my personal tastes. objectively, the poems themselves are good—this isn’t lang leav or anything, and they’re all short; many are simple haikus, and each has a cute little drawing to illustrate it.
there were certainly poems i enjoyed as little bonbons of sweetness:
and some were more atmospheric than treacly:
however, there are also some that read like nicholas sparks directing a sarah mclachlan aspca commercial with their clear agenda to poke the tears right outta you
this robot does not respond to such obvious attempts at emotional manipulation.
but i DO respond to poems that are about specific elements of the pet-loving lifestyle.
i have done this:
and this:
and even before maggie was diagnosed with stupid cancer, i have lived by this code:
and the similarly-themed:
even though she is not an especial fan of kisses or cuddles or attention in general i must enforce my rights as food-giver.
it’s a good collection, if you are a little more sentimental than me. (which is most people—my emotional detachment is pretty well-developed, unfortunately) and the pictures are pretty darn cute:
it’s just a series of sweet and simple thoughts that i can relate to in my own experiences, but as poetry, they don’t move me beyond a brief burst of recognition that doesn’t stick to my ribs.
i am much more responsive to cat butt.
read my book reviews on goodreads
