I have been looking to write about this book for more than three months now. But, since today is the birthday of the poet, Bhuchung D Sonam, let’s talk about his latest collection of poems, Songs from Dewachen.

 

Published by Blackneck Books, an imprint of TibetWrites, Songs from Dewachen contains 42 poems about the dog, the man’s best friend, in every scenario possible. If you are dog-lover, or dog-parent, perhaps this book is not for you, because not all the dogs Bhuchung talks about find happy homes. There are strays, there are dead dogs, their end described in their gory visceral realness, there are dogs killed for “health reasons,” and “The four women walk away/ Carrying heavy bags/ Talking about/ A dog/ Who got clubbed on his mouth/ Before / He was slaughtered.”

 

Despite the violence, and there is violence (because that’s what we do to dogs, whether on the street and in captivity — “This is when the owner/ Kicks her rear and leashes/ Her back into the apartment/ She slumps/ Remembering her/ Mother in the mountains”), the book is also filled with love and compassion, and the poet’s keen sense of observation of dogs and their behaviour. The poet obviously loves dogs — “Last night grandpa came into my dream/ Walking up a narrow mountain trail./Chakchung followed him a few steps behind/ On a low boulder at the waist of the hill/ They rested.” Such is the poet’s identification with his subject that many poems in the book are narrated from the point of view of the dogs themselves. And in others, the poet wishes to be a dog, “But I am only a human/ I have stairs to climb/ Walls to build, bugs to fix,/ And a whole lot of clowns to please.” 

 

Once you have read the book, and have met the different dogs that populate this beautiful book — a mastiff, a chihuahua, a Doberman, and many others — you may be tempted to read the poems as allegory to our human condition. This becomes evident in the poem called “Claim”, where the poet says, “I am a dog/ A Tibetan dog from Kyegu…”

 

But I would advise against easy allegorical reading. Read the poems for what they are — our relationship with dogs and how we treat them, with both love and hate, and how the animal kingdom brings out the best and the worst in us, the humans. 

 

I am not really a dog person (I was unlucky to watch the film version of Stephen King’s Cujo when I was an impressionable kid), but I loved, loved this book. One of the best poetry collections I have read.  

 

Thank you for writing the poems, Bhuchung, and thank you for sharing them with us. 

 

And yes, wishing you a very happy birthday. 

 

You can get the book from Champaca Bookstore. https://champaca.in/products/songs-from-dewachen?variant=39532821905443 

 

PS. Dewachen is a Tibetan word meaning “blissful.” The word is associated with “Sukhavati”, a pure land in Mahayana Buddhism, associated with the Buddha Amitābha. It is commonly called the Western Pure Land or the Western Paradise, and is the most well-known of Buddhist pure lands, due to the popularity of Pure Land Buddhism in East Asia.