Everyone Can be a Poet

Dean Koontz, a prolific writer whose books are typically read by adults, collaborated with Trixie Koontz (Dean's faithful companion also identified as a Golden Retriever) and illustrator Janet Cleland, to pen I,Trixie Who is Dog.  The opening of the tale, written in verse, is a perfect reminder that APRIL  is still National Poetry Month.

Dog is the best of the best things to be.

Sorry you are not dog.

Not everyone can be.

I decided to use Dean and Trixie's style to craft a cat's retort

Cat is the perfect creature - true

Want to see a  flawless feline?

Look at me, not you!

Celebrate National Poetry Month with a Cat Poem! or Two.

It's National Poetry Month!   There are many, many wonderful animal poems.  I was rifling through a collection of cat poems in a small book aptly titled The Great Cat- poems about cats - and happened upon Naomi Shihab Nye's poem --

Every Cat Had a Story

The yellow one from the bakery

smelled like a cream puff-

she followed us home.

We buried our faces

in her sweet fur.

One cat hid her head

while I practiced violin.

But she came out for piano.

At night she played sonatas

on my quilt.

One cat built a secret nest

in my socks.

One sat in the window

staring up at the street all day

while we were at school.

One cat loved the radio dial.

One cat almost smiled.

The poem conjured up memories of every cat I've been lucky enough to live with.       Sidney, my college campus black kitten.   Artie, the tiny long haired guy who made Sid look like a lion.                 Alvie, the scarred bruiser who went from sewer-pipe cat to best bed buddy-- ever.                                                                                        SamMelvin, the big orange tabby...the cat of my dreams.              Dave, a boarder at the shelter until his elderly person died, my daughter's  first true love.         Bruce, the cat foster cat who picked me.                                                                                

And now, Charlotte -- the queen of the camera phone.  

The National Poetry Month Celebration Continues!

I've read Cat Poems by Dave Crawley hundreds of times, but somehow never really spent much time on the last poem in the collection, Tandy Is Twenty. I happened on the poem this morning just as I was updating my photo file with recent picture of Max and Micky.  We adopted Micky more than 10 years ago, and for all we  know he could be 20 -- he was a seasoned adult then, and is definitely a very senior cat now.  Max, just four when Micky moved in, could have written a similar poem for his regular bed buddy.

Tandy is Twenty

by Dave Crawley

Tandy is twenty years old today.

Her shiny black coat is speckled with gray.

She no longer scampers with kittenish glee.

She's not up for leaping or climbing a tree.

I was just a young boy the day she was born.

The toys I gave her are tattered and torn.

Though games we played have come to an end,

she's still my companion , and I'm still her friend.

Tandy is twenty years old today.

Her shiny black coat is speckled with gray.

but stroking her neck still brings back the joy--

when she was a kitten and I was a boy.

  

A Little Poem by Ogden Nash

The Dog
by Ogden Nash


The truth I do not stretch or shove
When I state that the dog is full of love.
I've also found, by actual test,
A wet dog is the lovingest.

National Poetry month continues -- write a poem, read a poem, sing a poem!