by Kelly

Just the other day, right here on Haiku By Two, I published a review of a book called Dog-Ku. It’s a collection of haiku written from a dog’s point of view.

Well, actually, it’s written from several dogs’ point of view. But there are two dog voices that outweigh all the others. Those voices belong to Zac, a black Lab-Rhodesian Ridgeback, and E.D., a German Shepherd-Lab mix.

Zac and E.D. call Steve D. Marsh their human being. Through him, they channeled their haiku from their doggy brains to English letters we can read.

I caught up with Mr. Marsh via email to ask him a few questions about what it’s like to live with such talented dogs.

Was it hard to get inside your dogs’ heads?

No, in fact, as I confess in the book’s introduction, they first got inside my mind.

I think it was a kind of ESP. Extra Species Perception.

Do your dogs always think in haiku?

No, in fact, my dogs don’t always think.

Once, Zac got so excited at the unexpected appearance of his sisters at the park that he bounded and dragged me face first through a 30-foot mud puddle.

I did plenty of thinking after that, but most of what I was thinking you can’t put on your web site!

In what ways in haiku particularly suitable for expressing a dog’s point of view?

Simple, honest, direct. Could a dog be anything else?

Haiku is short, to the point, often wise, funny, insightful. All dog.

Do you view your dogs differently now?

Not really. I think I must have been a dog in a previous life. There seems to be plenty of dogness left over.

Have you ever noticed that the percentage of bad dogs is a lot smaller than the percentage of bad people? Maybe I just hang around with the wrong kind of politicians, but that’s what I’ve seen.

Have your dogs written any new haiku lately?

Absolutely. Come on over to www.dog-ku.com and see the latest.

In fact, feel free to leave a haiku of your own for Zac and E.D. to enjoy.

Find Dog-Ku on Amazon:
Dog-ku: Very Clever Haikus Cleverly Written by Very Clever Dogs

by Kelly

Of course dogs can talk. Anyone who has one knows this is true. But are they wordsmiths? Can dogs compose haiku?

Turns out, they can. Dog-Ku is a cute little book filled with 17-syllable poems penned by pooches. Human Steve D. Marsh gets the author credit but each haiku on the inside was communicated to him by his dogs.

Each one of the dog-haiku reveals a distinctly dog point of view. This, for example, was one of my favorites:

My humans love me

Every gift I give is dear.

They collect my poop.

I’ve often wondered what goes through my dogs’ minds as they stand there and watch me clean up after them on a walk.

Having been a dog owner all my life, though, I’m well-versed in the ways of dogs. It was no surprise, therefore, when I came across dog-haiku in this book singing the joys of of stealing food, puking grass and sniffing butts. I chuckled at nearly every page.

In fact, I was so taken with these dog-minded haiku that after I turned the last page, I started to wonder whether or not any haiku were knocking around in my dogs’ brains. Guess what?! The answer was yes!

Here’s what Abby had to say:

My tongue can’t talk but

it can lick. I lick you. I

lick you.  I love you.

And this is all Aries:

Grandpa? Grandpa? When?

Where? There? Is that his truck? Yes!

Joy! Oh, joy! Grandpa!

With just a little bit of Googling, I also managed to find a web site posting all sorts of doggie point-of-view haiku. Check out the dog-ku at Yuckles.com.

Find Dog-Ku on Amazon:
Dog-ku: Very Clever Haikus Cleverly Written by Very Clever Dogs