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Sunday, April 18, 2010

DAY 18 – CATS

NaPoWriMo Day 18

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“I’m cursed. I’m a tiger,” says Read Write Poem member Irene. She’s talking about the Year of the Tiger, and it’s the inspiration for her NaPoWriMo prompt:
The tiger is a creature known to create wildness and tumult. In Chinese superstition, it is not a year to marry or have children. The tiger is too aggressive. It stalks and preys.
Write a poem featuring the cat family, whether big or small.
There are many cat poems that may inspire you. The first poem that comes to mind, William Blake’s “The Tyger,” wonders why such a creature is created in the first place. Did such a creation come from the Devil himself? God will only create a lamb, right?
Ted Hughes wrote about the jaguar, a not-so-distant cousin. I think a jaguar looks even more fearsome. There’s a playful feline quality about the tiger. Not so with a jaguar! It is like black rage. I’ve seen a jaguar in a zoo, pacing endlessly in its cage. Here’s how Hughes wrote it, in “The Jaguar,” “He spins from the bars, but there’s no cage to him” and “his stride is wildernesses of freedom.”
Then there’s the pussy cat. In “Esther’s Tomcat,” also by Hughes, the cat becomes, in a figurative sense, the protagonist, the beleaguered husband. Hughes describes him as “an old rough mat” and reveals, “Continual wars and wives are what/ Have tattered his ears and battered his head.”
Is that enough to go on? Roar! Purr! (You choose.)
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A Haiku on the Nine Lives principle - containing nine words.
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NINE

Timespan nine lives long
Until curiosity
Presents fatal blow

21 comments:

  1. Oops, poor kitty! Good one Stan!
    Pamela

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  2. Thanks Pamela; When it's time... it's time...

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  3. Hey! I came expecting to see a musical stage play, instead, all I got was a damned fine haiku -- well done Stan... ;)
    ...rob
    Image & Verse

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  4. Thanks Rob; It's all been done before...

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  5. Hi Stan,

    While I was here, you were visiting me! Most appropriate haiku!

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  6. Thanks to:
    Derrick; Simultaneous curiosity...
    Joanne; Lives too short...

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  7. Great haiku! Wish they had more lives, for sure.

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  8. I like the way you swung this, it puts a whole new slant on a cat of nine tails, or should that be nine tales. Ten out of ten, or perhaps ten and your out?

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  9. clever stanski... now im wondering abt the number 9 other than pink floyd.... here kitty kitty

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  10. Thanks to:
    Robin; Less curiosity might help there.
    Lucychili; They never lose it.
    Poemblaze; Thanks for visiting.
    Evelyn; They want to know, but never learn...
    Lori; Thank you.
    Andy; A lot of cats here don't have tails and 9 out of 10 don't have owners.
    Pieceofpie; Thinking, but only come up with Lucifer Sam in ref to cats, and nothing on No 9.

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  11. Reminds me of this two-word poem for kids. I perform it with a descending whistle:

    End of the Ninth

    Cat








    Splat!

    Greg O'Connell 2010

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  12. Thanks Greg;That's pretty cool, I bet it raises a chuckle or two from the kids.

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  13. meow meow Stan....love cool cats....thanks again for your words

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  14. Thanks Wayne; Even the coolest of cats don't live forever.

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  15. Thanks Dan; I guess so, after 8 previous attempts.

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