Dog language

Chase Twichell follows this rule when writing poems: 'Tell the truth. No decoration. Remember death.' In an age when individual identity is questioned, medicated and revised, the boldly assertive poems in "Dog Language" address the question 'What is the self?'. Following the line of human development, she confronts memory and mortality and asks what, if anything, survives us. Twichell views writing a poem as an act of questioning, what it means to have human consciousness and the language to truthfully and accurately convey it, so that the finished poem throws a fresh and surprising light on what it means to be sentient. She is a practising Buddhist, and her poetry reflects her spiritual practice within the ancient tradition of Basho and Dogen and the contemporary company of Gary Snyder and W.S. Merwin.… (more)