Re:...grateful for cats...
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7/25/2009 4:08 PM
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#411 )
Edda´s cat poems are great and so are the pictures posted here! Since I cannot contribute any of those I´d like to call your attention to some poetry, which, I am sure, you all know, but which I at least never tire of. Enjoy!
THE NAMING OF CATS
The naming of cats is a difficult matter,
It isn´t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I´m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there´s the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Baily -
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter -
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that´s particular,
A name that´s peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum -
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there´s still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover -
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular name. - T.S.Eliot, Old Possum´s Book of Practical Cats
Juliana
"Speak Peace in a World of Conflict" (M.B.Rosenberg)