good cat poems? (1 Viewer)

hi,

can anyone point me to some buk cat poems, particularly ones that might pertain to the death of a cat? thanks for any suggestions. susan
 
"my cat, the writer" and "cats and you and me" are both from The Night Torn Mad With Footsteps (2001, Ecco). Neither one is about the death of a cat, though.

My favorite cat poem of his is "the mockingbird" from Mockingbird Wish Me Luck.

the mockingbird

the mockingbird had been following the cat
all summer
mocking mocking mocking
teasing and cocksure;
the cat crawled under rockers on porches
tail flashing
and said something angry to the mockingbird
which I didn't understand.

yesterday the cat walked calmly up the driveway
with the mockingbird alive in its mouth,
wings fanned, beautiful wings fanned and flopping,
feathers parted like a woman's legs,
and the bird was no longer mocking,
it was asking, it was praying
but the cat
striding down through centuries
would not listen.

I saw it crawl under a yellow car
with the bird
to bargain it to another place.

summer was over.
 
...and there's "Tabby cat" in "What matters most..."...
 
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can anyone point me to some buk cat poems, particularly ones that might pertain to the death of a cat?


terminology
************

my other favorite cat seemed to be dying and
I had him in and out of the vet's
for x-rays, consultations, injections,
operations

"anything at all, " I told the doc
"let's try to keep him going..."

one morning I drove over to pick him
up and the girl at the counter
a vast girl in a wrap-around white
nurse's outfit
asked me, "do you want your cat put
to sleep?"

"what?" I asked.

she repeated her
statement.

"put to sleep?" I asked, "you mean
exterminated?"

"well, yes," she said, smiling with her
tiny eyes, then looking at the card
in her hand she said, "oh, I see it was
Mrs. Evans who wanted it done..."

"really?" i asked.

"sorry," she said and walked into the other
room with her card and her sorry fat ass and
her sorry walk and her sorry life and
her sorry death and her sorry Mrs. Evans and
both of their sorry fat shits.

I walked over, sat down and opened up a
cat magazine, then closed it, thinking, it's
just her job, it's something she does, she doesn't
kill the cats.

when she came into the office again she no
longer quite disgusted me and I opened the pages
of the cat magazine again and looked at and turned
the pages as if I had forgotten everything, which
I hadn't
exactly.


WAR ALL THE TIME pp.145
 
Can anyone tell me in what book is a poem about Bukowski finding a beat up cat, and nursing him to health and comparing himself to the cat. I remember in the poem the cat was almost dead, and I think it was missing an eye too.

I really enjoyed that poem, but I'm not sure what book I read it in.
 
yeah the cat had been shot too. i think the cat he was actually referring to, is the one in the Bukowski tapes where he looks down and says ..."Mink! Minksy! oooo Baby, what is it?" he said he laid down with that cat in the bathroom and just stayed with him.

I'm pretty sure thats the cat. I may be mistaken. I'll look for the poem though. I think there is even mention of it in "Laughing With The Gods?"

maybe my mind is playing tricks on me.
 
There's also a cat poem in Bone Palace Ballet called Reunion. It's about one of his cats having pissed on his computer...:D
 
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My neighbors have an outdoor feeder and water dish, so I have plenty of opportunity to admire them from my window across the street. Cats are definitely inspiring to me. I've been feline co-dependent since 1969.

"steps through porticoes of my imagination".. - Buk. (yet another cat poem)
 
I think that History of a Tough Motherfucker might be one of my favorite poems by him.

I have a cat now whose almost died several times and he's a tough motherfucker, too.
 

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