Is Poetry Going to the Dogs?

First it was the cats. Now, it’s the dogs.

Dogs are writing poetry. I am not making this up.

Don’t believe me? Try “Another Bag:”

Love

True, unbridled love

Is looking at what I just did

On the sidewalk

Then picking it up in a bag

I can only imagine as a treasured keepsake

Wow, the collection you must have by now.

Only a dog could have written that. I know that for a fact. We had a dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, for 14 years. We used 16,000 plastic sandwich bags in assembling our collection from the sidewalk. He also considered it an honor for us to pick it up.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Photograph by X Posid via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

Now Look Who’s Writing Poetry: Cats

It’s rather startling: a recurring line in a poem that reads “I could pee on that.”

Charles Bukowski, perhaps? Sandra Bernhard waxing softly poetic?

Nope. A cat.

Her new sweater doesn’t smell of me

I could pee on that

She’s gone out for the day and

   left her laptop on the counter

I could pee on that

Her new boyfriend just pushed

   my head away

I could pee on him

She’s ignoring me ignoring her

I could pee everywhere

She’s making up for it

   by putting me on her lap

I could pee on this

I could pee on this

That’s the title poem of I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano. You may have heard of him; when he’s not recording poems by cats, he’s co-authoring the comic strip Sally Forth. Marciuliano writes the strip; Craig Macintosh draws it. The strip has no cats; those are saved for this book.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Photograph by George Hodan via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.