Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way.
straying planets,
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles –
and rocky sure-foot trails.
The worlds like an endless
four-dimensional
Game of Go.
ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.
Gary Snyder
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
— BY THEODORE ROETHKE
The scientists are in terror
and the European mind stops
Wyndham Lewis chose blindness
rather than have his mind stop.
Night under wind mid garofani,
the petals are almost still
Mozart, Linnaeus, Sulmona,
When one’s friends hate each other
how can there be peace in the world?
Their asperities diverted me in my green time.
A blown husk that is finished
but the light sings eternal
a pale flare over marshes
where the salt hay whispers to tide’s change
Time, space,
neither life nor death is the answer.
And of man seeking good,
doing evil.
In meiner Heimat
where the dead walked
and the living were made of cardboard.
His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fade behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six o’clock;
And short square fingers stuffing pipes,
And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties,
The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.
— Eliot
I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this
air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
— Walt Whitman
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
This is absolutely incredible! I’m gonna look and see if maybe there’s more kitty stuff on the internet.
this same thing happened to us years ago at Hayden Lake in Idaho 2 nights in a row, after the second night we took them in. afterwards they were “water” cats and loved being around in in the lake, under the dock, on the beach. they were orange tabby’s too…..
Tom Hyland, well I looked and looked but could not find a cute kitten website anywhere. Might try again tomorrow.
Alas, Tom, I have scoured the light and dark web for years, decades even, and this is the only cute kitten video anywhere. But, to paraphase Scoop Nisker, “If you don’t like the absence of cat videos go out and make some of your own.”
To tell the truth, I am not really a cat fan. It is their blatant aloofness that I dislike more than anything else. I know, I know. Our beloved host is a big fan of the feline species. I’m more of a dog person. I like the companionship of a canine and their never-ending attempt to please the hand that feeds them.
So, here’s my question: Given the circumstances of their rescue, do you suppose these cute little critters would abandon their innate aloofness?….at least toward the nice men that saved them from becoming alligator food?
Oh, and I’m really surprised to learn that there a no other cute cat videos on the interwebs. Are you sure about that? I’m going to have to go look now….on second thought, never mind.
we have “visit cats” in rural NC, kinda half feral. we like ‘em.
I like cats anyway. our last one liked to fetch and knew what we were saying to her. ^..^
dogs try like all hell to be people. with cats, it’s your job to be a cat.
Kevin,
I have to admit I was not ever a cat guy… until on the good advice of my oldest friend I got Olive and brought her to live with me a few weeks before the Paradise fire. Having another living thing around and to take care of after that got me through it.
For awhile we lived in my mother’s spare bedroom, then we lived in an apartment smaller than my dorm room, and now we live in an adequate apartment here among the treetops in Chico.
I have to admit that Olive was the single most important element of living as I do in the last locked-down year. Since I know absolutely nobody in Chico it really was just an old man and a cat here in the trees and I was grateful she was around.
She’s a sort of loner cat and doesn’t really assert herself except in the evening when it is red dot and furry toy time. Other than that I care for her, feed her, and protect her. (No outside black cat at night in the city, thank you.) In return, she’s just Olive over there watching from the high widow for that pair of yappy whippets across the way. She sits around looking beautiful, calm, wise, stoic,and aloof.
Great role model for evil times.
Do you contrast cows with horses?
(horses don’t give milk so they ain’t worth a dam
cows can’t be rode so they ain’t worth a dam)
Unfortunately I too preferred dogs over cats for may years, almost half my life.
Then one day, just like that, I changed.
I realized that it was ME that was wrong, not the cats.
For unknown reason(s) I thought cats should be like dogs and since they were not they were not worthy of my companionship.
I’ve written long, here and elsewhere, on my experiences with cats, and dogs, and I don’t prefer one over the other. We currently have 1 dog and 4 cats but in the not so distant past we had 2 dogs and 10 cats. All at the same time.
When you have multiples of animals, over a long period of time, you will understand that yes indeed they have different personalities. You will cater your own personality to that of each individual animal. Our Caramel (a tortie) will come to me every time when I call to her. Our other tortie, Tawny Autumn, will not. I do not get angry at Tawny because her personality is different than Caramels. I just accept each for who they are, for doing otherwise is futile and leads to alienation.
Gerard: Thank you for the photo and update on Miss Olive; it looks like you two have rescued each other in a very real sense.
As for Kevin, he just hasn’t met the right cats– my two are anything but blatantly aloof– it may make a difference that they have each other to chase around while they cook up plots to seek attention from the resident human. Casey in particular will supervise the plumber or any other guy in the building trades who has to fix something in the apartment, while Coco inspects all visitors’ shoes and rubs against their legs until they pet her.
For Kevin’s info about the two kittens rescued from the Warrior River– they had people lining up eager to adopt them when the video went viral. Both are happily settled in new permanent homes.
Apropos of swimming cats: here’s a video from the Beach Cats of Queensland, Australia, taken with an underwater camera so that you can see just how the cats paddle to keep their heads above water. (Nathan is a female cat in spite of her name). Bonus is a few shots of the Beach Cats’ humans in their bathing suits, a male Aussie named Rian and a sheila named Melissa. The humans note that Nathan “naturally took to water and loves a swim at any opportunity. Nathan is completely untrained, everything that you see her doing is completely her choice.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83mXrs9mLoA&t=2s&ab_channel=NathantheBeachCat
I get what you are saying, Gerard. Companionship and the dynamic of human interaction with any other of God’s creatures, especially during times of isolation offers profound healing to the human mind, to the soul. Also, in your situation as described I bet a cat packs up and moves in a lot easier than a dog, even a small dog.
Felines are remarkable critters in terms of structural design and their ability to hunt is impressive. But I live in a rural community and we seem to be overrun with feral cats. They shit in my vegetable garden (not often, but once is enough) and piss in my shrubbery. I think it may be a case of city folks coming to the Summer home, get a cat and then when it’s time to return to the city, the cat is abandoned. It only takes a couple incidents of that before your are lousy with the critters….they reproduce like, well like cats! Very irresponsible…. I mean on the part of the pet owner. The cats can’t help themselves.
I had dogs all of my life, up until about ten years back. Homer on his Odyssey, was the “greatest dog that ever lived”. He was my GSD I had to put down at the too young age of seven. All riddled with tumors. He was the best dog I ever had, easy to train, really connected and bonded with me from birth. We went e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e together. My bond with that dog pulled me through a very dark period of my life as I navigated through divorce after 25 years marriage and departed the Pacific NorthWet. I broke my heart when my buddy Homer went and at that time I said I could never get another dog.
During the first 5 years after Homer passed, I was in one place caring for my Mother until she passed right before her 95th birthday. The five years after that I had opportunity to travel internationally a lot. For the first time in my life I was without the responsibility of having to be caring for or responsible for anyone or anything except myself. No pets and the kids are all grown and flown. The freedom of not having to get home to let the dog out, no longer having limits on travel plans, or added cost to travel due to kenneling while out of town was a new thing to enjoy…..and then this damn virus comes along and I’ve been alone through it all. The thought has crossed my mind to get another dog…..but….
I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I think the rotten, cruel bastard who would abuse or abandon a critter of any kind.
Twenty one years ago my wife and I returned to So Cal after out honeymoon trip to Niagara Falls. Our home for the next few years would be the ramshackle garage apartment at my mother-in-law’s house. Our first night home, a little orange kitten came bounding out of the bushes in the yard, and decided to move in with us. We didn’t have much say in the matter. We’ve had cats ever since.
Right now I have Buddy the Cat, and The Skinamalink (Skinnies for short). They’re my best pals in the world. Skinnies is my morning companion. I sit in the dark with that first cup of coffee, and my silent black cat snuggled up on my right side. Ol’ Buddy believes himself to be the boss of me. I can count on him to come around late in the morning, meowling, and howling at me to stop, and take a nap, just like when I worked swing shift. I usually defer to his animal wisdom, and let him have his way. I stretch out on the couch, he jumps up on my chest, stretches out purring, and next thing I know I’m dozing away. Love my ol’ kitty.
Are they a bother sometimes? Sure. And it’s a hundred per cent guarantee that the little buggers will tear your heart out one day.
Still, they’re worth it.
JWM
Another old man living alone with a cat. I’ve always been a dog person. About six years ago my daughter changed jobs, increasing the amount of travel. She needed somebody to care care of her cat, Oblio. So dad volunteered. I’ve been thankful every day since. Obie is the sweetest, most spoiled cat in the world. She is my fuzz-faced alarm clock, waking me at 6:00 AM for her breakfast. I’ve “lost” many an afternoon when she decided to pour herself in my lap and take a nap. The simple pleasure of a pet sleeping on you is indescribable. I joke “I used to be cool. Now I have cat pictures on my phone.”
We adopted an orange and white cat from a neighbor who had found a litter in their crawlspace. He’s a dead ringer for those two in the video. He loves to jump in the bathtub with my kids, and has been known to “visit” me in the shower! Look up “Turkish Van”
Never trust a man who doesn’t like animals. Always had cats and dogs, have one sitting on my shoulder now pestering me. A Golden at my feet awaiting breakfast. In 91 we moved to here, brought an old orange cat from the farm, took a year but he was, lord of the cats, by then.
Everywhere I went I observed adolescent lil orange cats, hundreds of em. I was a proud step cat dad, secretly wanted to be just like Bowser, the king of the cats. Unfortunately our legal system holds accountable mans with lots of children ” well if your white, and responsible they do” .
Ol bowsers buried out back in the pet grave yard, along side his friends, the dogs, other cats, gold fish, hamsters, and a pet pig. Truth be told I miss all of em, I like animals far more then I like people.
Dirk Diggler!!!!. Love it, my racing sailboats named ” Dirk Diggler”. One of the others is DirkaDirkaStan, Not very origional, yet appropriate.
Village Idiot.
“Oh village idiot, he’s complicated
Village idiot, he’s got a simple mind
Village idiot, must know something
But he’s just not saying”