A Theory Of Prosody
by Philip Levine
When Nellie, my old pussy
cat, was still in her prime,
she would sit behind me
as I wrote, and when the line
got too long she’d reach
one sudden black foreleg down
and paw at the moving hand,
the offensive one. The first
time she drew blood I learned
it was poetic to end
a line anywhere to keep her
quiet. After all, many morn-
ings she’d gotten to the chair
long before I was even up.
Those nights I couldn’t sleep
she’d come and sit in my lap
to calm me. So I figured
I owed her the short cat line.
She’s dead now almost nine years,
and before that there was one
during which she faked attention
and I faked obedience.
Isn’t that what it’s about—
pretending there’s an alert cat
who leaves nothing to chance.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- To A Soldier In Hospital by Winifred Mary Letts
- Contusion by Sylvia Plath
- Doomes-Day: The Tenth Houre by William Alexander
- Coromandel Fishers by Sarojini Naidu
- Sonnet CXXXIV by William Shakespeare
- The Mysterious Cat by Vachel Lindsay
- Give Me Back My Rags #11 by Vasko Popa
- Philip Levine – Philip Levine
- Владимир Гиппиус – Узел
- Proud Music of The Storm by Walt Whitman
- Intruder
- Владимир Высоцкий – Дорожный дневник: Часть IV
- The Tears In Cupid’s Eyes by Tupac Shakur
- Алексей Ржевский – Как я стал знать взор твой
- Tarrant Moss by Rudyard Kipling
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
Philip Levine ( 1928 – 2015) was an American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for more than thirty years in the English department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets from 2000 to 2006, and was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States for 2011–2012