Description

Doggerel is a powerful meditation on Blackness, masculinity, and vulnerability from one of contemporary poetry’s most daring voices.

Reginald Dwayne Betts is widely recognized for examining how imprisonment reshapes and defines American society. In Doggerel, Betts investigates these urgent themes through a more everyday but equally profound lens: the relationship humans share with dogs. He reminds us that while navigating struggles, transformation, and healing, our most faithful observers often bark rather than speak. Through poems exploring the many meanings of companionship, Betts masterfully employs poetic forms—from pantoum and ghazal to the canzone—in a rich dialogue with cultural voices such as Freddie Gibbs and Lil Wayne.

At once philosophical and vibrant, Doggerel deeply explores family ties, love, friendship, and those who stand beside us throughout our journey. By merging societal critique with deeply personal narratives, Betts again demonstrates poetry’s unique ability “to radically disrupt narrative” (Dan Chiasson, The New Yorker), revealing fresh meaning and understanding in the ordinary world.

“. . . every story expands infinitely,
once we turn from mere names
instead filling them
with what matters most, the barking
and all the rest—because doesn’t everyone,
on even our brightest days, feel as messy
and uncertain as some rescued stray,
simply longing to be loved?”
—from “Rings”