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Practical Cat on Cinco De Mayo, a poem … and your next Wednesday Writing Prompt

“Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.” Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, Gigi and the Cat

had we homÍnidos our wits, we’d have had his cojones clipped
before some perro made him into a crippled capon, that tomcat
he was boisterous and adamant and ready for trouble, it wasn’t
just his maleness he lost, it was his life, poor thing and he left

the other mourning and coughing up chicken bits and hair balls
too woebegone to steal fatty succulents from Mexicali Rose
while she was busy adjusting the bbq grill, flirting with Brian ~
those two spiced their tacos with a bit of kissy-face touchy-bod

in the heat of the heat of that summer in ’86, when we celebrated
Cinco de Mayo in the park off Alameda de las Pulgas and a new
little furry calabaza came into our lives, half-starved and dehydrated
with a heavy chain-choker some gamberro put around his neck –

idiot! – and Brian freed him and we rushed him to the vet hospital
where they repaired the damage, he became el hermano pequeño
to the black and white, the essential practical cat, forgetting her
tom and her mourning, letting that sweet boy stroll into her heart

© 2018, poem, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved; Photo credit Darren Hanlon, Public Domain Photographs.com

WEDNESDAY WRITING PROMPT

I know you are all critter lovers, so this week’s prompt honors that. Tell us about one of your furry, feathered or other animal companions in poem/s and …

Share your poem/s on theme in the comments section below or leave a link to it/them. All poems on theme will be published on the first Tuesday following this post.

 No poems submitted through email or Facebook will be published. 

IF this is your first time joining us for The Poet by Day, Wednesday Writing Prompt, please send a brief bio and photo to me at thepoetbyday@gmail.com to introduce yourself to the community … and to me :-). These are partnered with your poem/s on first publication.

PLEASE send the bio ONLY if you are with us on this for the first time AND only if you have posted a poem (or a link to one of yours) on theme in the comments section below.  

Deadline:  Monday, March 11 by 8 pm Pacific Standard Time.

Anyone may take part Wednesday Writing Prompt, no matter the status of your career: novice, emerging or pro.  It’s about exercising the poetic muscle, showcasing your work, and getting to know other poets who might be new to you. This is a discerning non-judgemental place to connect.

You are welcome – encouraged – to share your poems in a language other than English but please accompany it with a translation into English.

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Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded.  I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read by Northern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”

The BeZine: Waging the Peace, An Interfaith Exploration featuring Fr. Daniel Sormani, Rev. Benjamin Meyers, and the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi among others

“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA

“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton

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GYPSY ROSE FIRE, a poem

gypsy-2-300-ethere’s a noble soul resides in you,
enchanting your three humans,
bound by your beauty and grace,
mystery, adventure, failing kidneys
you with your fiery eyes, your
odd hungers and 3 a.m. run-abouts

“I sometimes longed for someone who, like me, had not adjusted perfectly with his age, and such a person was hard to find; but I soon discovered cats, in which I could imagine a condition like mine, and books, where I found it quite often.”  Julio Cortázar (1914-1984), Argentine novelist, short story writer, and essayist, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

Grandkitty Gypsy and Pywacket
Pyewacket and  Gypsy, both forever in our hearts

Gypsy Rose died a few years ago and I’d commissioned a set of paintings from Gretchen just in time. Dahlia lives at the Gyp’s house now and I have Baxter living with me, but Gypsy is still much missed and forever loved.

© 2016, poem and photograph, Jamie Dedes; Original watercolor painting of Grandkitty  Gretchen Del Rio, All rights reserved

THE WORDPLAY SHOP: books, tools and supplies for poets, readers and writers

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The Stone Creek

file0001381132763no rain that summer
no clouds for the sun to part like veils

the stoney bed of the creek so dry,
we walked on it, finding the tiny skeletons
of wild things – a deer mouse, a fish head

a heat deranged cat visited, brown and scraggy,
beaming her anger from yellow eyes,
her maw quirky and dry
her tongue gone mad

© 2013, poem , Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved; Photo courtesy of morgueFile