Doggerel // Poems

Reginald Dwayne Betts is our foremost chronicler of the ways prison shapes and transforms American life.

“. . . every story becomes a multiplication,

If the naming is filled less with names than

With the best parts, the barking & everything

Else, because who among us hasn’t been

As mangy as a rescue, even on our best

Days, desiring mostly to be loved.”

–from “Rings”

InDoggerel, Betts examines this subject through a more prosaic–but equally rich–lens: dogs. He reminds us that, as our lives are broken and put back together, the only witness often barks instead of talks. In these poems, which touch on companionship in its many forms, Betts seamlessly and skillfully deploys the pantoum, ghazal, and canzone, in conversation with artists such as Freddie Gibbs and Lil Wayne.

Simultaneously philosophical and playful,Doggerelis a meditation on family, falling in love, friendship, and those who accompany us on our walk through life. Balancing political critique with personal experience, Betts once again shows us “how poems can be enlisted to radically disrupt narrative” (Dan Chiasson,The New Yorker)–and, in doing so, reveals the world anew.

Reginald Dwayne Bettsis the author of three books of poetry, including the best-sellingFelon. He is a poet, lawyer, and the founder and CEO of Freedom Reads. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his dog.

• Item Weight: 0.6pounds
• Hardcover: 96pages
• ISBN-13:9781324089254
• Dimensions:6.4 x 0.6 x 8.6 inches
• Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company (March 4, 2025)
• Language:English
• BISAC Categories: Poetry