Sudden Dog

by Matthew Pennock

Honest and vulnerable, Sudden Dog 's speaker ardently engages the self as drunken romantic, or even as domesticated animal in the loud realm of the real. We follow Matthew Pennock because he convinces us of his singular and lyrical voice, because he shows us how to be reckless yet stoic, dignified yet sardonic, quick to joke yet on the verge of tears.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2012

Reviews

[rogue · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sudden dog is a beautiful, brilliant image to use as the core metaphor for a book of poetry. One thinks of a human who becomes--only for a moment--a sudden dog, revealing the primitive and depraved within us. Or a wolf who becomes a sudden dog--a moment of tameness and civility as it whimpers by your feet. I love this double image, and it created in me a strong desire to see the sudden dog within the writer. What does this mean to him? To me, it means to me a return to one's instincts. During moments of dog, I would expect a return to a more fundamental language. Unfortunately, I couldn't find contact with this simpler language of feelings, since a lot of the poems felt cerebral to me. They also dealt with existential crisis, what to do after one has gone through the wasteland and been washed of any illusions. How would a sudden dog deal with these questions? That's what I was really curious about and why I was left disappointed. Maybe it means something else to the author. But I couldn't help clinging to the image in the title, and wanting to see it unleashed.