Higgledy Piggledy

[grannyjill]

Well, I dont know about this as a new life-style choice, but I definitely like this particular verse. I didn't know this poem before, so I can't say whether I would have reacted just as positively if it had been traditionally laid out, though.

I am very impressed with what you did with my Etheree - it made it very eye-catching...I bet some-one seeing this in a book of poetry (fat chance!) would have felt intriqued enough to read it. Thank you

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Spare time! Spare time!
What the dickens is that?
I'm a person
Not a cat.

Ha! Brings to mind one of my favorite cat poems:


Cat's Dream
- Pablo Neruda - translated by Alastair Reid

How neatly a cat sleeps,
sleeps with its paws and its posture,
sleeps with its wicked claws,
and with its unfeeling blood,
sleeps with all the rings--
a series of burnt circles--
which have formed the odd geology
of its sand-colored tail.

I should like to sleep like a cat,
with all the fur of time,
with a tongue rough as flint,
with the dry sex of fire;
and after speaking to no one,
stretch myself over the world,
over roofs and landscapes,
with a passionate desire
to hunt the rats in my dreams.

I have seen how the cat asleep
would undulate, how the night
flowed through it like dark water;
and at times, it was going to fall
or possibly plunge into
the bare deserted snowdrifts.
Sometimes it grew so much in sleep
like a tiger's great-grandfather,
and would leap in the darkness over
rooftops, clouds and volcanoes.

Sleep, sleep cat of the night,
with episcopal ceremony
and your stone-carved moustache.
Take care of all our dreams;
control the obscurity
of our slumbering prowess
with your relentless heart
and the great ruff of your tail.

. . .

O this is glorious - I love it. I didn't know Pablo Neruda wrote poems like this. I've only ever read his love poems before. Thank you for this.