December 2016 Poetry Challenge - a Cat Poem

Photo by Kathleen Marie Penrod

The news over the past few months has been intense and often depressing: the terrible destruction of life and property in Aleppo where even young children seem to be targets; in the U.S., an election campaign that featured name-calling, threats and insults, and exposed deep wounds dividing people; news of a huge international child pornography ring, burgeoning accusations of sexual abuse of youth by British soccer coaches. . . . and more. So for December, the Poetry Challenge is going to take a break from serious matters.

In the U.S., people joke about emails and Facebook posts about cute kittens, emails and posts that bring a smile to many faces. This month, we will focus on poems about cats (or kittens). 

Many of the world’s best poets have written about cats. In fact, “The Naming of Cats,” which ended up as a song in the musical, “Cats,” was written by T. S. Eliot, who is known for such profound and deep works as “The Waste Land,” “The Four Quartets,” and “The Hollow Man.” You can read “The Naming of Cats” at http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/the_naming_of_cats_5774. It is nice to know that Eliot had a sense of humor.

One of the most famous cat poems come from the 1700s:

Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat

Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes

’Twas on a lofty vase’s side,

Where China’s gayest art had dyed

The azure flowers that blow;

Demurest of the tabby kind,

The pensive Selima, reclined,

Gazed on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declared;

The fair round face, the snowy beard,

The velvet of her paws,

Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,

Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,

She saw; and purred applause.

Still had she gazed; but ’midst the tide

Two angel forms were seen to glide,

The genii of the stream;

Their scaly armour’s Tyrian hue

Through richest purple to the view

Betrayed a golden gleam.

The hapless nymph with wonder saw;

A whisker first and then a claw,

With many an ardent wish,

She stretched in vain to reach the prize.

What female heart can gold despise?

What cat’s averse to fish?

Presumptuous maid! with looks intent

Again she stretch’d, again she bent,

Nor knew the gulf between.

(Malignant Fate sat by, and smiled)

The slippery verge her feet beguiled,

She tumbled headlong in.

Eight times emerging from the flood

She mewed to every watery god,

Some speedy aid to send.

No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred;

Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard;

A Favourite has no friend!

From hence, ye beauties, undeceived,

Know, one false step is ne’er retrieved,

And be with caution bold.

Not all that tempts your wandering eyes

And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;

Nor all that glisters, gold.

~ Thomas Gray

Here is another cat poem by a well-known poet:

The Cat and the Moon

The cat went here and there

And the moon spun round like a top,

And the nearest kin of the moon,

The creeping cat, looked up.

Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,

For, wander and wail as he would,

The pure cold light in the sky

Troubled his animal blood.

Minnaloushe runs in the grass

Lifting his delicate feet.

Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?

When two close kindred meet.

What better than call a dance?

Maybe the moon may learn,

Tired of that courtly fashion,

A new dance turn.

Minnaloushe creeps through the grass

From moonlit place to place,

The sacred moon overhead

Has taken a new phase.

Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils

Will pass from change to change,

And that from round to crescent,

From crescent to round they range?

Minnaloushe creeps through the grass

Alone, important and wise,

And lifts to the changing moon

His changing eyes.

~ William Butler Yeats

The two poems above are in the public domain.

In contrast to these long poems, one by and English poet and one by an Irish poet, is the miniature cat poem by the Persian poet, Rumi, which you can find at http://thecreativecat.net/poetry-for-sunday-rumi-this-great-love/. It goes to show that you don’t have to be wordy to write a good cat poem.

If you want to read more cat poems, here are two places where you can find links:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/search?q=Cat

http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poems/cat

The December Challenge:

The December Challenge is to submit a poem about a cat, or a poem in which a cat plays an important role, preferably not as long as the example poem by Thomas Gray. Your poem may be a narrative, as are the two example poems, but it doesn't have to be. It may be serious, humorous, or tender. Too much sentimentality, however, isn’t likely to win.

Title your poem unless it is haiku or another form that does not use titles. It may be free or formal verse. If you use a form, please identify the form when you submit your poem. Please single-space, and don’t use lines that are overly long (because the blog format doesn’t accommodate long lines). Please do not indent or center your poem on the page.

You may submit a published poem if you retain copyright, but please include publication data. This applies to poems published in books, journals, newspapers, or on the Internet.

The deadline is December 15. Poems submitted after the deadline will not be considered. There is no charge to enter, so there are no monetary rewards; however winners are published on this blog. Please don’t stray too far from “family-friendly” language. No simultaneous submissions, please. You should know by the end of the month whether or not your poem will be published on this blog. Decision of the judge or judges is final.

Copyright on each poem is retained by the poet. If a winning poem is published elsewhere later, please give credit to this blog.

How to Submit Your Poem:

Send one poem only to wildamorris[at]ameritech[dot]net (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for “dot”). Put December Poetry Challenge Submission in the subject line of your email. Include a brief bio which can be printed with your poem, if you are a winner this month. Please put your name and bio under the poem in your email. Put “What if poem in the subject line.

Submission of a poem gives permission for the poem to be posted on the blog if it is a winner, so be sure that you put your name (exactly as you would like it to appear if you do win) at the end of the poem. Poems may be pasted into an email or sent as an attachment (no pdf files, please). Please do not indent the poem or center it on the page. It helps if you submit the poem in the format used on the blog (Title and poem left-justified; title in bold (not all in capital letters); your name at the bottom of the poem). Also, please do not use spaces instead of commas in the middle of lines. I have no problem with poets using that technique (I sometimes do it myself). However I have difficulty getting the blog to accept and maintain extra spaces.

Poems shorter than 40 lines are generally preferred but longer poems will be considered.

© Wilda Morris

March 2015 Poetry Challenge

There are quite a few famous poems about fish and fishing. One of the most famous is a poem by John Wolcot, who wrote under the pen name "Peter Pindar." Wolcot was born in 1738 and died in 1819. His name is not as well-known now as it once was, in part because much of his poetry was about current events and about the celebrities of his day. His poem about fishing, however, has stood the test of time.

To A Fish of the Brook

Why fliest thou away with fear?
Trust me there's naught of danger near,
     I have no wicked hook
All covered with a snaring bait,
Alas, to tempt thee to thy fate,
     And drag thee from the brook.

O harmless tenant of the flood,
I do not wish to spill thy blood,
     For nature unto thee,
Perchance hath given a tender wife,
And children dear, to charm thy life,
     As she hath done for me.

Enjoy thy stream, O harmless fish;
And when an angler for his dish,
     Through gluttony's vile sin,
Attempts, a wretch, to pull thee out,
God give thee strength, O gentle trout,
     To pull the rascal in!

~ John Wolcot (Peter Pindar)

The poem is rhymed and metered. Wolot doesn’t tell us what kind of fish the poem is addressed to until the next to last line when he needs the word “trout” to rhyme with “out.” Note how he seeks to create a sense of identification with the fish.

Wolcot was known for his wit and satire, so I suspect that he intended this poem to be humorous. The message has been taken more seriously by some contemporary animal rights groups, however.

Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “The Fish,” which you can read at http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/fish-2, is an entirely different kind of poem. It isn’t reproduced here, because it is not yet in the public domain.

Bishop’s poem is well-crafted free verse. She uses a number of poetic devices, including similes, vivid imagery, and alliteration. There are two very short sentences near the beginning of the poem. After that most of the poem, though consisting of short lines, is made up of long, run-on sentences. This structure, it seems to me, gives more “punch” to the six word concluding sentence.

Like Wolcot, Bishop creates in the reader a sense of identification with and sympathy for the fish, but she does it in a very different way than he did. Her detailed descriptions of the fish and the hooks in its lip are important in that regard, as is the idea of looking into the eyes of the fish. The fish and its plight may be metaphoric, suggesting the struggles which people go through in life.

While the fish in Bishop’s poem is old, ugly and described in detail, the trout William Butler Yeats wrote about was “silver.” That one word is the only description given to the fish caught by the narrator. But what a fish! Yeats made good use of his imagination in this poem:

The Song of Wandering Aengus

I went out to the hazel wood,

Because a fire was in my head,

And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

And hooked a berry to a thread;

And when white moths were on the wing,

And moth-like stars were flickering out,

I dropped the berry in a stream

And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor

I went to blow the fire aflame,

But something rustled on the floor,

And some one called me by my name:

It had become a glimmering girl

With apple blossom in her hair

Who called me by my name and ran

And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering

Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

I will find out where she has gone,

And kiss her lips and take her hands;

And walk among long dappled grass,

And pluck till time and times are done

The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun.

 ~ William Butler Yeats

This is, of course, another rhymed and metered poem. Is it a dream poem? Aengus is the name of a got in Irish mythology, but the story told by this haunting poem doesn’t retell any of the traditional stories. Much ink has used in trying to explain all the symbolism of the poem. Do you think the main theme of the poem is obsessive or unrequited love? Human longing for what is unattainable? Essentially every object in the poem, from the moths to the “silver apples of the moon” and “golden apples of the sun” have been interpreted metaphorically.

March Poetry Challenge:

The poetry challenge for March is to write a poem about fish or fishing. Maybe you went fishing with your father or grandfather, or took your child fishing. Perhaps you love a good fish fry, or maybe you can’t stand the taste or texture of tuna.

Your submission can be a narrative poem, such as Bishop’s poem, about a realistic fish. It can be a magical fish such as the silver fish in Yeats’ poem. Or the fish or fishes or fishing can be metaphoric. Be sure your poem is about fishing or about a fish. A starfish is not a fish, despite its name (some scientists are trying to persuade us to call them sea stars), nor are sand dollars. Octopi are not fish, nor are whales.

Submit only one poem. The deadline is March 15. Poems submitted after the March 15 deadline will not be considered. There is no charge to enter, so there are no monetary rewards; however winners are published on this blog. Please don’t stray far from “family-friendly” language.

Copyright on each poem is retained by the poet.

Poems published in books or on the Internet (including Facebook and other on-line social networks) are not eligible. If your poem has been published in a print periodical, you may submit it if you retain copyright, but please include publication data.

How to Submit Your Poem:

Send one poem only to wildamorris[at]ameritech[dot]net (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for “dot”) . Include a brief bio which can be printed with your poem, if you are a winner this month.

Submission of a poem gives permission for the poem to be posted on the blog if it is a winner, so be sure that you put your name (exactly as you would like it to appear if you do win) at the end of the poem. Poems may be pasted into an email or sent as an attachment. Please do not indent the poem or center it on the page. It helps if you submit the poem in the format used on the blog (Title and poem left-justified; title in bold (not all in capital letters); your name at the bottom of the poem). Also, please do not use spaces instead of commas in the middle of lines. I have no problem with poets using that technique; I sometimes do it myself. However I have difficulty getting the blog to accept and maintain extra spaces.

Poems shorter than 30 lines are generally preferred. Also, if lines are too long, they don’t fit in the blog format and have to be split, so you might be wise to use shorter lines.

Some Other Interesting Poems about Fish or Fishing:

David Bond, “Fishing With the Hair Of The Dead,” in American Chicken (New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2007), pp. 13-17.

“Billy Collins, “Fishing on the Susquehanna in July,” in Picnic, Lightening (Pittsburg: Pittsburgh University Press, 1998), p. 7-8.

James Merrill, “The Parrot Fish,” in James Merrill, Selected Poems 1946-1985 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), p. 81.

Pablo Neuruda, “El Pescador”/”The Fisherman,” in Pablo Neruda, Five Decades: A Selection (Poems: 1925-1970) A Bilingual Edition Edited and Translated from the Spanish by Ben Belitt (New York: Grove Press, 1974), pp. 304-305.

Mary Oliver, “Gannets,” “Dogfish,” and “The Fish,” in New and Selected Poems (Boston: Beacon Press, 1992), pp. 28-29, 103-105, 165. [Note: Gannet’s are birds—but they eat fish, so fish are important to the poem.]

Henriëtte Roland-Holst, “Mother of Fishermen,” in The Penguin Book of Women Poets, edited by Carol Cosman, Joan Keefeand and Kathleen Weaver (Middlesex, England and New York: Penguin Books, 1978), p. 222.

 

Sandy Stark, “Learning to Fish” in Counting on Birds by Sandy Stark (Fireweed Press, 2010) ; also at http://wildamorris.blogspot.com/2013/06/june-2013-poetry-challenge-learning.html.

For more fish poems on line, see http://www.poetryfoundation.org/search/?q=fish. This collection will not only take you fishing, it will also take you to a fish market.

© Wilda Morris

September 2010 Poetry Challenge

According to insectzoo.msstate.edu/Students/basic.numbers.html, an insect which scientists call Eopterum devonicum lived 350 million years ago—before the dinosaurs and even 349,900,000 years (give or take a week or two!) before human beings appeared on earth. The same Webpage estimates that there are 20-30 million species of insect on the earth today. In fact there are more different species of dragonflies than there are mammals. It should not be a surprise then, that poets through the ages have written about these small winged creatures.

Poets have admired, complained about and cursed insects. William Blake, a English poet who died in 1827, wrote an empathetic apostrophe to a fly:

The Fly

Little fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
Of thought is death,

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

-- William Blake

The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake


Contemporary poet, Alice D’Alessio, has a different take on the insect she writes about, the pesky Asian Ladybeetle. Where I live, the Asian Ladybeetle hasn’t been as omnipresent as in some previous summers—for which I am grateful!

Uninvited Guests

For instance, the Asian Ladybeetle
smug as an orange pearl

in its vinyl exoskeleton
dotted, determined, has come to stage

a wild reunion, bringing myriad friends.
They swarm out of window casings, motor

about the floor, climb the walls,
linedance along the bookshelves; take

a quick dip in dishwater and scotch;
make side trips along the couch, inside

my collar and book, wander through hair,
dive in eyes and mouth. It’s a road race

with mini VW’s, a plague, an invasion,
a terrorist plot, a bad dream.

Nature slyly lifts the lid and looses
Pandora’s hordes to teach

humility. We who imagine ourselves
just slightly lower than the gods, cower

before this orange revelry, huddle
in corners, stinking of bugspray.

~ Alice D’Alessio

From Woodlands and Prairie Magazine

Though many people despise flies, mosquitoes, ants, Asian Ladybeetles—and many other insects, the dragonfly is often the object of admiration and fascination, as is evident from John Lehman’s poem:

Dragonfly

It anchors to the sail of our skiff,
clasps a world of detachable wings
and the scent of almonds and coconut
oil dancing in the sun.

It is ancient, the iron rod of a distant
weather vane, leaves of a book
riffling in the wind.

Gulliver borne on one more voyage
it asks, what is the governing body here
that pulls these lines and hums
to the hum of the wind and glides
yellow and white so low
between the mirrors of lake and sky?

I am real and you are not, it spins
as we turn about —
the snap of our sail recalls the flap
of Pteranodon wings.

~ John Lehman

Shrine of the Tooth Fairy (Poems by John Lehman; Illustrations by Spencer Walts)

The cricket is one insect that is better received in some cultures than in others. This is reflected in my poem:

The Cricket

I didn’t mind sleeping
on a cot in the basement
until the cricket moved in,
made his home under
the water heater. How
could anyone sleep
when that cricket shrieked
all night, notes reverberating
off the tile floor and the metal
above his small back?
I kept throwing my shoe
at him, missing again and again.

Now I know Chinese families
buy small cages, keep crickets
as pets to hear them sing.
How long would I have to live
in China before I understood this,
before I’d harmonize
with their night music?
How long before I’d learn
to distinguish the chirps
of the yellow bell cricket,
from the broad-faced and bespeckled,
till I heard in their songs the loneliness
of the emperor’s concubines?
How long till I internalized
the cycle of their lives,
from nymph to white maggot
to singer of soft summer songs,
to the high pitched cheep
of autumn, the laying of eggs
and death before spring?

~ Wilda Morris

Rockford Review, XXV:2 (Summer-Fall 2006), p. 57.

September Challenge

One thing each of these poems has in common is that they reflect on some aspect of insect-human interaction. The challenge for September is to write a poem reflecting on some kind of interaction between a human being (or human beings in general) and an insect (or insects). Your poem can be free verse or formal, serious or humorous.

Poems published in books or on the Internet are not eligible. If you poem has been published in a periodical, please include publication data.

How to Submit Your Poem:

Send your poem to wildamorris [at] ameritech [dot] net (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for [dot], and don’t leave any spaces). Or you can access my Facebook page and send the poem in a message. Be sure provide your e-mail address. Submission of a poem gives permission for the poem to be posted on the blog, if it is a winner. The deadline is September 15. Winning poems are published on the blog.

Dorn Septet Challenge:

The Dorn Septet Challenge is open until September 15. The septet must reflect all the qualities of a dorn septet as described in the June Challenge, and must have a minimum of three stanzas. To find the June Challenge, scroll down and look for Blog Archive on the right-hand side of the page. Click on June.

A Few More Insect Poems and Where to Find Them

Anne Sexton, "Hornet," "Cockroach" and "June Bug" in The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton

Ted Kooser, "Grasshoppers," in Delights & Shadows

Emily Dickinson, #677 ("Least Bee that brew"); #1224 ("LIke Trains of Cars on Tracks of Plush"); #1405 ("Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles")

Richard Wilbur, "A Grasshopper," in Collected Poems 1943-2004

Jean de la Fontaine, "The Grasshopper and the Ant," translated by Richard Wilbur, in Collected Poems 1943-2004

Stanley Kunitz, "The Dragonfly," in The Collected Poems

Yusuf Al-Sa'igh, "Ants," translated by Diana Der Hovanessian with Salma Khadr Jayyusi in Modern Arabic Poetry

Khalil Khouri, "Ants and the Sun," translated by Sharif Elmusa and Christopher Middleton, in Modern Arabic Poetry

William Butler Yeats, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," (Several insects play a role in this poem, but the poem doesn't center on insects inthe way expected of poems in the September challenge. See The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Don Marquis has a number of insect-related poems in his Archy and Mehitable books (Actually, Archy is a cockroach). See: Archy and Mehitabel or The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel (Penguin Classics)



Enjoy!

© 2010 Wilda Morris