"Dog that goes back on its word"

Words are consumed, and the canine of broken promises appears furtively, like a being born of words in a tale of the strange.
The Canine of Broken Promises follows closely behind, swallowing words into its belly. I speak, it feeds, and as it feeds, it grows a discernible body for others to see, replacing me as I wander through books overgrown with language...
Grand Prize Winner of the 10th Yang Mu Poetry Award
Young Poet Hu Jiaren's Debut Poetry Collection

"The Canine of Broken Promises" won the 10th Yang Mu Poetry Award. Centered on the award-winning collection, with some new additions, it comprises fifty refined poems. Hu Jiaren attempts to use narration (more precisely, the narrative momentum of poetic language) to bring the people and events in everyday life, regardless of good or evil, right or wrong, to life through ample detail, allowing them to act and speak. The author wishes to preserve the fleeting present of mutual existence through writing. The poet places his own voice among them, replacing the observation of still life with dialogue.

The poet conceived the strange image of the Canine of Broken Promises, which is not merely an anthropomorphic beast, but vividly simulates the mutual give and take between the author and the literary language during the creative process. In his afterword, he states, "I am constantly pulled away from my speaking self by time, and that is when the Canine of Broken Promises manifests before others. I am destined to never clearly see what I become in my speaking; this is the Canine of Broken Promises, a language that gradually becomes discernible in its disappearance. I feel uneasy about it, and also, to make it grow, I continue to write." The poet's creative drive also becomes an imagery in the poems, and such precise mutual metaphors are impressive.
　
In his recommendation preface, poet Yang Chih-chieh points out that Hu Jiaren can be considered a balancer and harmonizer of this generation's poetic voice. Many critics also laud his skill and characteristics in handling narrative poems, lyrical poems, and even abstract, speculative poems, which gives the collection a diverse style, at times unrestrained and melancholic, at times calm like a measuring instrument. The musicality and rich imagery changes in the poems are like swirling smoke and clouds, like whirlpools, both cruel and extremely gentle. Chih-chieh puts it well: "Perhaps, cruelty to poetry is the only tenderness to poetry."