Ten Poems about Cats

Cats have provided writers and artists with inspiration for as long as they have been winding themselves purring round their owners’ legs and fixing them with their big, green eyes.  The poems in this pamphlet are evidence of some wonderful cats and their amusing and endearing ways, from Thom Gunn’s kittens galloping like a re-enactment of  Ben Hur along the corridor, to Jen Hadfield’s cat asking to be let in at the kitchen door…then out again… .    It goes without saying that this pamphlet is best enjoyed with a cat on your lap.

‘Puss with delight beyond expression,
Surveyed the scene and took possession.’

from ‘The Retired Cat’ by William Cowper (1731 – 1800)

Contents

Elizabeth Coatsworth, ‘On a Night of Snow’
Thom Gunn, ‘Apartment Cats’
William Cowper, ‘The Retired Cat’
Grace Nichols, ‘Tabby’
Anna Wigley, ‘The Missing Cats of Roath’
Anne Stevenson, ‘Clydie is dead!’
Jen Hadfield, ‘In the same way’
Anon, ‘I love little Pussy’ and ‘Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, where have you been?’ (for children)
Walter de la Mare, ‘Puss’

Illustrated by Beth Krommes.

Donation to Cats Protection, www.cats.org.uk

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