Cat Russell's Blog, page 11
November 28, 2019
POEM: “Clean Slate?”
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“Clean Slate?”
once the day’s scratched
across its surface
no matter how you rub
a trace always remains
you cannot rewrite your past
only print the present
over what came before
#
I hope you’ve had a happy November! And if you participated in National Novel Writing Month this year, great work! Most people don’t even make the attempt, so if you wrote anything more than what you would have, you’ve won. Congratulations!
Since this is the last post for November, before we get into the holiday season and are inundated with Christmas carols, stale fruit cakes, and other assorted fare, I wanted to assure you that I will NOT be posting Christmas-centric posts. There is enough of that sort of thing without my contributing.
It’s not that I’m against people enjoying the holidays–in fact, I often celebrate obscure holidays like Towel Day and Free Comic Book Day!–but it’s just not my thing. So, maybe I’m a Grinch, but the only holiday I’ll be discussing in December will be New Years! I’m looking forward to my annual Resolution post, both for accountability and to declare my new goals for the new year of 2020! And I’d love to hear what you have done this year or plan to do in the next!
As always, I will post here again in two weeks, and my Patreon posts once a week. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions or requests, please let me know in the comments, and have a great couple weeks!
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* image courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net via Creative Commons Universal License .
November 14, 2019
POEM: “The Gift”
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“The Gift”
Li Po’s poetic heir explains why
he destroys his poem after reading:
gifts are only given once, and I imagine
those torn papers floating downstream
or sacrificial flames engulfing verse,
rising smoke lyrics for the gods to enjoy.
Why can’t poems be given more than once?
Each reading–a sown garden of rock and sand:
the hard elements remain but with wind
and days the pattern will change.
I’ve reread my favorite verses many times.
What would I give to hear them read anew
by creators long dead and gone? Yet their words
live beyond the short years of their lives.
As lovely as that gesture is, I want
to gather those torn pages, mend them
with strong fast silver threads. I want
to press them between my palms
like the bright petals of plucked dandelions.
I long to keep what’s given.
Poems may be lost to time
but a single reading is not enough,
not for me. Not for me.
Words, like breath, are too precious.
They change the world
with each exhale.
#
Happy November! And if you are participating in National Novel Writing Month this year, Happy Novelling! If you would like to be writing buddies or just check out my progress, I go by ‘ganymeder’ on the NaNoWriMo site.
I’m concentrating this month on my (already work-in-progress) novel, but my posts will still drop here once every two weeks and my additional Patreon posts once a week. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions or requests, please let me know in the comments, and have a great holiday!
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* image courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net via Creative Commons Universal License .
**This is a reaction poem inspired by the poet Sony Ton-Aime ’s performance of his gift poem at Latitudes Poetry Night September 2019.
October 30, 2019
POEM: “Her Neti Pot Ate Her Brain”
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For All Hallow’s Eve, I’m going to skip the tricks and just give you an extra post this week as a treat! Believe it or not, it’s inspired by a real event. I picked this poem, because I thought the creep-factor fit the holiday nicely. I hope you like it!
“Her Neti Pot Ate Her Brain”
The news article was not
particularly specific,
at least I didn’t absorb more
than the fact that when
the doctors opened her skull
to operate they discovered
a golf-ball sized patch of brain
turned to bloody mush
from the amoebas eating away
her grey matter–or is it pink?
no matter, at least none
of that golf-ball sized patch
that could think clearly,
the amoebas in the tap water
she used in her neti pot,
tap water organisms normally killed
by stomach acid
given free access to her brain
through her nasal cavity.
Do I dice with death
during every shower?
Turning my face up,
head tilted back
to wash the shampoo
from my hair,
each drop’s
a tiny clear bullet
just waiting
to hit its target.
What else is given access?
–a spider crawling
in nose or ear, making its way
to build webs in cerebellum,
normally there would be
no room for such an enterprise,
but a hollowed-out golf-ball size
patch of medulla oblongata
might be enough
for a small spider
to set up housekeeping.
Waiting for her first
unsuspecting prey,
she sits,
a bloated black ball
chitchatting with killer amoebas
awaiting the fresh kill.
#
Happy Halloween! And if you are participating in National Novel Writing Month this year, Happy Novelling! If you would like to be writing buddies, I go by ‘ganymeder’ on the NaNoWriMo site.
Since I’ll be concentrating on my (already work-in-progress) novel during November, I’ve already scheduled my posts to drop once every two weeks on this blog, and once a week on my Patreon–except for my podcast; I’ll record my second episode of My Writing Niche 3.0 at the end of November, so I can recap November’s excitement! In the meantime, if you have any suggestions or requests, please let me know in the comments, and have a great holiday!
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*image courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net via Creative Commons
October 25, 2019
POEM: “Tentacled Dreams”
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“Tentacled Dreams”
alabaster thoughts bubble in the dark blue
waters envelope ebony visions
surfacing mustard colored coral reveries
her mind’s eye texturing moss green spots
dotting the soft thin sack of her skin,
her sleep crayolas chromatophoric hues
her everchanging rainbows clinging to
her glass prison’s cold smooth side, free float
fantasies transport her, solitary
and free throughout vast circling oceans
#
Thank you for visiting my blog. If you would like to read more of my work, I also post fiction, non fiction, product reviews, a podcast, and other goodies at my new Patreon in addition to this blog’s content. Until next time, have a lovely week!
** inspired by an article, “A Sleeping Octopus Changes Color While Dreaming.” –via laughingsquid.com
https://t.co/lqtxrD5n1P?amp=1
**
image
courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net via
Creative Commons Universal License
.
October 10, 2019
POEM: “Lines”
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“Lines”
reading the frowns
in one person’s face
against the laughter
in another’s
lives skate across palms
like trees waving
at nothing
bordering nothing
there are no limits
no lines drawn except those
we impose
on ourselves
#
Thank you for visiting my blog. Until next time, have a lovely couple of weeks!
**image courtesy of BigFoto.com
September 27, 2019
POEM: “Operation Babylift”
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“Operation Babylift”
Flight plan from Agent Orange
and unfriendly fire, the war torn
to new homes stateside
its first flight
airlifting from Vietnam
the orphaned ones
their parents lost too soon
too soon
too soon to see them grow up
instead strapped in carriers
on airplane seats,
the innocent ones witness
not new homes in a new land
but fuselage
breaking
burning
the rice paddy skid
the soft meets hard
flesh and metal and pliant plant life burning
burning
burning
the dam breaking
drowning waters and unfurling flames
the damn breaking apart
the smoking metal skeleton
the smoking
the
the fragile lives lost
their legacy
their memory
their deaths
fading
fading
fading
lost to time
who remembers the orphans now?
#
Thank you for visiting my blog. If you would like to read more about the inspiration (as well as the construction) of this poem, this week’s Patreon post may be of interest to you! For as little as $1 a month–less than a cup of tea–you get more of my work: fiction, non fiction, product reviews, and other goodies as well. Until next time, have a lovely week!
*image courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net via Creative Commons Universal License.
September 12, 2019
POEM: “Bread and Circuses”
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“Bread and Circuses”
Today Washingtonian elephants Trumpet
away to the tweet tweet of distraction
for days on end while blue jackasses bray
away abuse, abused and abusing
the general multitude.
Meanwhile, the Ringmaster serves as clown supreme
serving double purpose: distracts us all
from our bread-full bellies as he erodes
our way of life, keeps us laughing
so we don’t notice
the price we paid to get here.
the price we still pay.
#
Thank you for visiting my blog. If you would like to read more of my work, I’ll be posting fiction, non fiction, product reviews, and other goodies at my new Patreon in addition to this blog’s content. Until next time, have a lovely week!
*image courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net via Creative Commons Universal License.
August 30, 2019
Announcement: My New Patreon Page!
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Patreon is a subscription site where creators provide content for a monthly subscription fee. It’s a modern low-key version of the patronage system that allowed Shakespeare and Michelangelo to do their work. Basically, it’s an opportunity to support someone whose work you enjoy, without needing to commit an exorbitant amount of money. Now, for the cost of a cup of tea (or less), you can support a creator, as well as enjoy additional members-only content available through her Patreon page.
I will continue my normal posts to this blog, once every other Friday, but now I will provide additional posts and monthly audio or visual content for Patreon subscribers. The details are on my Patreon page, as well as my introductory video. Please, check it out! Even if you don’t subscribe, I’m proud of the work I’ve put into the page and excited about my new projects!
Please, come back next week for another new poem. Thank you for visiting my blog, and have a lovely week!
August 22, 2019
POEM: “Unfinished”
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“Unfinished”
*inspired by Douglas Adams’s intro to P.G. Wodehouse’s Sunset at Blandings
An intro written to the unfinished
novel of his literary idol,
included in the collection published
posthumously of his own unfinished
work.
An author’s work is never done
Too soon it’s never finished
always .
#
Although I wrote it for a different reason, this poem seemed appropriate today, because tonight is the memorial open mic for local poet and awesome person, Vertigo Xi’an Xavier. He was a fixture in the Northeast Ohio poetry community and will be sorely missed.
I hope you enjoyed the poem, and please come back next Friday for (hopefully) some big news! In the meantime, have a lovely week.
**Image courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net via Creative Commons Universal License.
POEM: “Trump’s Greenland”
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“Trump’s Greenland”
Trump’s Greenland
wouldn’t be dwarfed
by a golden Trump tower’s
glittering phallus
not compensating for anything at all.
Trump’s Greenland
would be a dream
capitalist utopia
except that everyone
would know he’s the best, they all would love him, all!
if only Greenland was Denmark’s to sell,
he could trade Puerto Rico for it.
#
Since this is more specifically political than I normally post, here is my common sense disclaimer: This is a joke, based on the President’s own tweets and words. One of his tweets that I based this joke on was a joke tweet he made about Greenland. The others were apparently completely serious. I’ve also included links, because I realize it’s hard to believe.
This post is in addition to my scheduled Friday post this week, because I frankly couldn’t resist. I hope you enjoyed the poem and come back tomorrow for my normally scheduled post: same Cat Time, same Cat Channel.
*image courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net via Creative Commons Universal License.
**additional source links
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-once-joked-trading-puerto-rico-greenland-1455689
https://www.ft.com/content/da9e8170-c3fe-11e9-a8e9-296ca66511c9
https://theweek.com/speedreads/860462/trump-reportedly-joked-about-trading-puerto-rico-greenland
