The Dogs I Have Kissed

Known for her eponymous blog and her confessional style of writing, this is Trista Mateer's second collection of poetry. REVIEW: "The Dogs I Have Kissed is the kind of book you could read in one sitting and the kind of book you want to tuck underneath your pillow for a month. It's gripping and powerful and disturbingly honest. There are poems that are incredibly comforting and others that are so painful. Trista has the rare talent of writing poems that are both good and true. In terms of literary art, this chapbook is brilliant. Trista weaves together religious overtones with raw sensuality and heartache. She's so purposeful with the imagery, connecting and breaking motifs from each section of the book: how peaches become cherries, how salt is everywhere, the shape of same-different mouths. There is this lovely irony in these poems, how sometimes the speaker of these poems is the one who is described like a dog: sloppy, rabid, hungry, whining. Maybe that's not an irony at all. The Dogs I Have Kissed is for anyone who has felt the tough underside of love, anyone who has been angry and hurt and still strangely hopeful. One of the most striking lines in the entire book is something I keep thinking about: 'Is this okay, is this okay, is this okay, or does it make me weak?' Do yourself, your heart, and your current/ex/next lover a favor: buy this book. Devour it immediately." --Yena Sharma Purmasir, author of Until I Learned What It Meant