The Poems of Catnapping
The best poet on the Fray, in my opinion, Cat receives very little recognition for her writing. Her poems touch the soul and caress the senses like few others can.
My Father
Before my father became an old man,
people would turn and gaze
when he entered a room.
The walls would sigh,
and the floor smooth to glass.
And light would splinter,
falling around him in shards.
He stood with grizzlies,
his arms reaching up
hard branches the colour of manzanita,
his black hair waving blue in the sunlight.
He moved gracefully with the whitetail,
quick and deadly with the puma.
He'd lift me up
onto a brick wall that anchored our patio,
so I could watch giant silver beasts
a mile away.
He willed my eyes to stay open,
against the sun's gold daggers
And my little body to stand,
against the beasts' roar.
My father's magic
lifted the silver beasts
from a wide concrete ribbon,
and carried their bellies overhead.
Their jets brought
a wind that I could not inhale,
And an explosion I could not resist.
Before my father became an old man,
his voice enchanted women,
and turned men to stone.
He commanded the winds,
and held off the thunder.
He brought light to my eyes,
and wonder to my world.
Catnapping
All my Relations
I thought to myself...
that's how it all moves.
We are not unconnected
lonely ghosts
housed in eyes and ears.
Just waiting to leave…
The rock who powders
and becomes a part of our bones
'til we crumble
and sweep back to dust;
The rain that rushes
crimson through our legs
when we run,
and falls back to the earth
when we cry;
the air we breathe in
and then back out
into the mouths
of verdant trees;
or the grasses and deer
who lend us their lives
'til we pass it on
to the bears.
and then the beetles.
We connect one way
and then another
held by a thread
never separated
never lost© 2003 Catnapping
Subject:
Goodbye
From:
Catnapping444416
Date:
May 1 2003 8:06AM
I held him.
Skin like cold rubber
Pale, plump, and white
Soft blue lips
on the verge of
A quiet smile
Thick brown lashes resting
on cold white cheeks,
his eyes closed forever
A proud straight, cold marble nose
That breathed no air
And smelled no grief
Ears that didn't hear me
crying his name.
Begging him to come home with me.
They covered his body
with a freshly laundered
hospital sheet.
And tucked it under
his bushy red beard
to hide the hole
they'd put in his neck,
too late to save his life.
So I kissed the bottoms
of his feet and
the palms of his hands
I pressed my lips against his
The way I'd done
every night before
he went to sleep
And every morning before
he went off to work.
And I kissed him goodbye
© 2003 Catnapping
veterans day at the vfw
Sitting with friends
at a long table cluttered
with bowls of oatmeal
and cold stacks of pancakes,
he holds his coffee mug
with both hands
and recites the memory
of a cold ditch in Korea
Of hot chinese metal in his ribs
and of smoldering wool
and the certainty that he
would have burst into flames
on the spot
but for the fact
that so much of his blood
was still warm enough to be wet
Another Ghost
the sun slips
behind black silk,
and breathing stills,
lilac floats
on swollen air
twilight's hand
caresses my face,
fingers on my cheek,
a petal's kiss
on my lips
i stand naked
under blossoming trees
shadowed from starlight
moss grows
under bare feet
a cricket calls, lonely,
from another valley
in another hollow
another shadow
another pause
© 2004 Catnapping
Moongoddess
He is in love
with the moon
and she with him,
his soft white hair
reflecting, gently
her quiet light.
In a dark world
she holds him.
His blue eyes follow
her gleaming hands,
as she smoothes
away his day.
She bathes him
She kisses him
He sleeps,
shimmering.
lovingly cradled,
in her tender radiance.
© 2003 catnapping
Subject:
I'll have mine with blue on top, LOL!
From:
Catnapping444416
Date:
Jun 27 2003 9:39AM
I'll have bright yellow birds
And candy apple trees,
Pink petunias and
Snapdragons, please.
Orange marigolds, and
Bright red poppies
Would go great with
Swing, and
A clothesline of nappies.
Grasses to drape the hills,
A soft velvet green
Running with the wind,
Her footprints, only seen
I'll breathe Jasmine and Lilacs,
and sniff Honeysuckle vines
wrapping myself in their petals
my new clothes, divine.
Garnish with floating puffs
Of white cotton candy
Sugar, spun from dreams
Sunny, sweet, and dandy
Drizzle with glaze,
Transparent and blue
And top it with love
My gift from you
© 2003 Catnapping
The poetry of Catnapping…quietly supersedes the doggerel, the pretentious, the would-be poets and the mundane. It is the true essence of the art.
If her stalkers, attackers, and posers had but a fraction of the talent she exhibits on this board, they would busy themselves with creating things of worth rather than cluttering the forum with evidence of their ill-breeding, ignorance, and inferiority.
Jack Dallas (Posted on The Fray 2004)
The best poet on the Fray, in my opinion, Cat receives very little recognition for her writing. Her poems touch the soul and caress the senses like few others can.
My Father
Before my father became an old man,
people would turn and gaze
when he entered a room.
The walls would sigh,
and the floor smooth to glass.
And light would splinter,
falling around him in shards.
He stood with grizzlies,
his arms reaching up
hard branches the colour of manzanita,
his black hair waving blue in the sunlight.
He moved gracefully with the whitetail,
quick and deadly with the puma.
He'd lift me up
onto a brick wall that anchored our patio,
so I could watch giant silver beasts
a mile away.
He willed my eyes to stay open,
against the sun's gold daggers
And my little body to stand,
against the beasts' roar.
My father's magic
lifted the silver beasts
from a wide concrete ribbon,
and carried their bellies overhead.
Their jets brought
a wind that I could not inhale,
And an explosion I could not resist.
Before my father became an old man,
his voice enchanted women,
and turned men to stone.
He commanded the winds,
and held off the thunder.
He brought light to my eyes,
and wonder to my world.
Catnapping
All my Relations
I thought to myself...
that's how it all moves.
We are not unconnected
lonely ghosts
housed in eyes and ears.
Just waiting to leave…
The rock who powders
and becomes a part of our bones
'til we crumble
and sweep back to dust;
The rain that rushes
crimson through our legs
when we run,
and falls back to the earth
when we cry;
the air we breathe in
and then back out
into the mouths
of verdant trees;
or the grasses and deer
who lend us their lives
'til we pass it on
to the bears.
and then the beetles.
We connect one way
and then another
held by a thread
never separated
never lost© 2003 Catnapping
Subject:
Goodbye
From:
Catnapping444416
Date:
May 1 2003 8:06AM
I held him.
Skin like cold rubber
Pale, plump, and white
Soft blue lips
on the verge of
A quiet smile
Thick brown lashes resting
on cold white cheeks,
his eyes closed forever
A proud straight, cold marble nose
That breathed no air
And smelled no grief
Ears that didn't hear me
crying his name.
Begging him to come home with me.
They covered his body
with a freshly laundered
hospital sheet.
And tucked it under
his bushy red beard
to hide the hole
they'd put in his neck,
too late to save his life.
So I kissed the bottoms
of his feet and
the palms of his hands
I pressed my lips against his
The way I'd done
every night before
he went to sleep
And every morning before
he went off to work.
And I kissed him goodbye
© 2003 Catnapping
veterans day at the vfw
Sitting with friends
at a long table cluttered
with bowls of oatmeal
and cold stacks of pancakes,
he holds his coffee mug
with both hands
and recites the memory
of a cold ditch in Korea
Of hot chinese metal in his ribs
and of smoldering wool
and the certainty that he
would have burst into flames
on the spot
but for the fact
that so much of his blood
was still warm enough to be wet
Another Ghost
the sun slips
behind black silk,
and breathing stills,
lilac floats
on swollen air
twilight's hand
caresses my face,
fingers on my cheek,
a petal's kiss
on my lips
i stand naked
under blossoming trees
shadowed from starlight
moss grows
under bare feet
a cricket calls, lonely,
from another valley
in another hollow
another shadow
another pause
© 2004 Catnapping
Moongoddess
He is in love
with the moon
and she with him,
his soft white hair
reflecting, gently
her quiet light.
In a dark world
she holds him.
His blue eyes follow
her gleaming hands,
as she smoothes
away his day.
She bathes him
She kisses him
He sleeps,
shimmering.
lovingly cradled,
in her tender radiance.
© 2003 catnapping
Subject:
I'll have mine with blue on top, LOL!
From:
Catnapping444416
Date:
Jun 27 2003 9:39AM
I'll have bright yellow birds
And candy apple trees,
Pink petunias and
Snapdragons, please.
Orange marigolds, and
Bright red poppies
Would go great with
Swing, and
A clothesline of nappies.
Grasses to drape the hills,
A soft velvet green
Running with the wind,
Her footprints, only seen
I'll breathe Jasmine and Lilacs,
and sniff Honeysuckle vines
wrapping myself in their petals
my new clothes, divine.
Garnish with floating puffs
Of white cotton candy
Sugar, spun from dreams
Sunny, sweet, and dandy
Drizzle with glaze,
Transparent and blue
And top it with love
My gift from you
© 2003 Catnapping
The poetry of Catnapping…quietly supersedes the doggerel, the pretentious, the would-be poets and the mundane. It is the true essence of the art.
If her stalkers, attackers, and posers had but a fraction of the talent she exhibits on this board, they would busy themselves with creating things of worth rather than cluttering the forum with evidence of their ill-breeding, ignorance, and inferiority.
Jack Dallas (Posted on The Fray 2004)