Karen Jones's Reviews > Purrfect Poetry

I am always a bit apprehensive when animal themed poetry books appear on my desk… I have had quite a few bad experiences reading dozens of rhyming “I love my cat poems” and they all tended to blend into one after a couple of hours of forced reading.
Therefore I was really surprised that Lost Tower Publications had published its own ‘Cat Book’. So on Sunday morning I made myself a strong coffee and settled down to get through the horde of cat poems.
I am relieved to say this book has exceeded my expectations of animal poetry. It was a delightful, dynamic, refreshing change to the musty cat poems of old.
There are several reasons this anthology is effective at redefining this poetry genre.
This is a light hearted look about life with cats and the book is filled with quality photographs of cats in weird and wonderful situations. I particularly liked the modern tragicomic poems including:

Cat Chili Floor Surprise by Andrew Hale
Cat Haiku by Tim Graves
He’s More of a Dog Person by Suzanne Kamata
Small Attentions by Carol A. Stephen

The poets are international and many have won awards in their home countries which means the poetry standard is high. The poems are modern, expressive and are all individual interpretations of the effects cats have had in people’s lives. I found the cultural differences in cat-human relationships fascinating and is a subject I had never really given much thought.
There is also a mix of poetry styles ranging from the traditional rhyming to Haiku to blank verse which creates a nice eclectic reading mixture for the reader.

I would particularly recommend reading the following poems:
Grey by Wanda Morrow Clevenger
Cat Poems by Albert de Lorenzo

All in all I really enjoyed reading this anthology, one of my favourite publications of 2014.
This anthology is a dynamic redefining of the genre.
I have bought several copies as presents and would heartily recommend it.

Purrfect Poetry is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all good