Doggerel: Poems

by Reginald Dwayne Betts

Based on an extensive study of juxtaposition, Doggerel is a revelatory meditation on Blackness, masculinity, and vulnerability from one of poetry’s boldest voices.


Reginald Dwayne Betts is our foremost chronicler of the ways prison shapes and transforms American masculinity. In Doggerel, Betts examines this subject through a more prosaic—but equally rich— 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, Doggerel is a revelatory and faithful meditation on Blackness, masculinity, 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, New Yorker)—and, in doing so, reveals the world anew.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published March 4, 2025

About the author

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, essayist, and national spokesperson for the Campaign for Youth Justice. He writes and lectures about the impact of mass incarceration on American society. He is the author of three collections of poetry, Felon, Bastards of the Reagan Era, and Shahid Reads His Own Palm, as well as a memoir, A Question of Freedom. A graduate of Yale Law School, he lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife and their two sons.

Reviews

[Jillian B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was gifted a copy of this book by the publisher, and I feel so honoured because reading this was an absolute delight! As I expected from reviews I’d read, this book dives deep into themes of fatherhood and Black masculinity, but what I didn’t expect was the wry, witty tone. This is a collection that manages to make really insightful points without feeling like it takes itself too seriously. It’s accessible enough that I think newer readers of poetry will enjoy it, yet certainly well crafted enough that diehard poetry fans will also find a lot to love here. As a total dog person, I really enjoyed how many of the poems were about the writer’s beloved dogs.

I definitely recommend this one to poetry fans as well as those wanting to dip their toes into the genre!

[Sonja · Rating 5 out of 5]

“…desiring mostly to be loved.”

[Dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A velvety smooth midmorning spring breeze was blowing through the city of London when I sat down to read Reginald Dwayne Betts’s newest book of poetry in a flower shop cafe. Outside, the London sky was pristine blue. Sparkling and luxurious. An endless stratosphere where tufts of clouds slipped by, displaced and replaced with tufts of dreams. Big Ben chimed the hour and the sound of that hour fell languidly over the city, the country, the ends of the earth. Inside the veritable botanic garden I was warmly embraced by the whisper-soft scent of red roses, white roses, and a mix of nearly every other annual and perennial ever to have bloomed toward sun and moon. And there I sat, quietly turning page after page while I read and enjoyed poem after poem. “Doggerel” is a splendid work of poetry that is both Ivy League cerebral and street corner hip. The poems move and groove like jazz notes springing from the saxophone of Sonny Rollins. A beautiful and bodacious book that’s straight up sassy, classy, and a bit bad assy. It’s also a fun read, a memorable read, a read to think about and tell other people about. I’m telling you like it is, if you read just one book of poetry in 2025, treat yourself to “Doggerel.” Author Reginald Dwayne Betts is the Langston Hughes of the 21st century and reading his newest collection of jewel-like poems is as pleasing an experience as sitting in an English garden on a fresh spring day.

[Ben Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

About a lot of things but one of the sweetest was the thoughts about doggo's.

Also, I have another thought about this book but don't know how to express it so ask me in person if you're curious (or just want to see my try to fumble my way through an idea).

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy (emphasis on holy) shit.

[Mya Matteo · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In prison, a letter is called / a kite, as if words alone can gift / a man wings.”

“my / broken hand was its own weeping / way of asking a crowd of strangers / if I might be forgiven”

“Bobby Jones was a palace with a city rising out of him”

[Morgan Fulton · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5- I don't really see a world where I wasn't going to love this book

[Annisha Borah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t really know how to talk about poetry, so my review is just based solely on vibes and feelings.

I think poetry should always be read aloud. I think poetry books are best purchased and not borrowed bc they’re not something u want to ingest on someone else’s (ie, the library’s) timeline, plus i feel like it would be nice to markup the pages, things that move you.

I’m mostly drawn to poetry that rhymes, but the structure of these poems felt so rhythmic, even without rhyming verses, that it didn’t matter to me. This book has such a distinct personality and story to tell. I really liked the structure of a handful of the poems, which had 2 line stanzas, with all of the second lines ending in the same word. Would purchase if i see it at a local shop!

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Betts’s work is deceptively simple: it explores relationships and redemption through a dog motif, which sounds cutesy but isn't. The standout poem is ”Exhibiting Forgiveness,” but “Lavaggio,” “Bike Ride,” and “Cafe Saccari” also warranted a second or third read. I especially like how “Roadkill” ends: “...We’ve all been mistaken / For something less alive in this life I know / As I stop my bike before a liquor store holding / Whiskey that no longer drowns me, & remember, / Standing beneath a flyer with a Black girl dancing / Under Basquiat’s crown, forgetting who / Loves you is the easiest way to vanish” (Betts 34).

[Jack Heller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This seems to be a natural next step after Betts's previous collection, FELON. I am currently leading a group of men incarcerated in Indiana in reading through FELON, and I prefer it. But this volume has some exquisite poems. What I didn't expect is that Betts seems a bit sentimental sometimes, especially about his dogs. If you're more of a dog lover than I am, this might be a five-star collection for you.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these poems. They invite me into a way of looking at the world, when I am desperate to make sense of the craziness. This poet, my oh my, always surprising me, inspiring me, encouraging me…pushing me. I am grateful for these poems which speak to our world, our moment, our communities. I love it.

[Dyson Kona · Rating 4 out of 5]

wanted to rate as 3 stars while reading it, ended up really moving me towards the end

about maturation, finding commonality in. a world not built for joy, and in joy contextualizing your own personhood under the pretense of your own "prisons" (past mistakes + inherited history). Told thru dogs: the dogs are a come to, a coming of age, freedom, and control

[Luke Gorham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed for Library Journal (where my opening sentence was edited into the passive voice because they apparently hate me). RDB is near the top of the poetry world right now. 4 1/2.

[Dana DesJardins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vulnerable without self pity, these poems succinctly interrogate societal oppression and the personal interventions that can resurrect us. Tender, ruthlessly honest, and wry, Betts' work shows us how integrity walks through the damage.

[Sara Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not really much of a poetry fan but some of these were really good. My favorite was Solstice.

[amber levis · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...forgetting who/Loves you is the easiest way to vanish." — Roadkill

[Debs · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This poet is talented, but his project to keep to the quotidian in this collection left me feeling a need for more intensity of feeling. There are some interesting threads—the speaker’s sons, the reach for forgiveness, the agonizing strip of asphalt he retrods to come to a peace about his time in prison, the visiting Italy. But too much is cryptic. I feel these may be intensely personal details for the poet, but the reader is kept at a distance. I’m left wondering why the speaker breaks the silence.

[Hafsa | حفصہ · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Reminds us all how what brings you joy / might bring you tears, as if or because your / body is a flower starving for water.”

One poem I’d like to teach: This Future.

All the ghazals in the collection were on point! // on companionship with dogs but also resettling into society after being in prison and experiencing the prison system, cycles of toxic male patriarchy passed down generations, fatherhood and breaking those cycles // such clear, concise, image/scenario driven, and flowing poems like even if it’s not a favorite I know in my bones that it’s good on craft level // mid-way through the collection, some of the poems felt a little repetitive and were forgettable and also a very sudden switch to love/erotic poems made the collection feel disjointed