Cats by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
Cats no less liquid than their shadows
Offer no angles to the wind.
They slip, diminished, neat through loopholes
Less than themselves; will not be pinned
To rules or routes for journeys; counter
Attack with non-resistance; twist
Enticing through the curving fingers
And leave an angered empty fist.
They wait obsequious as darkness
Quick to retire, quick to return;
Admit no aim or ethics; flatter
With reservations; will not learn
To answer to their names; are seldom
Truly owned till shot or skinned.
Cats no less liquid than their shadows
Offer no angles to the wind.
Other works by A. S. J. Tessimond:
Some works by other modernist authors
- Baseball and Writing by Marianne Moore
- Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy
- Attack of the Squash People by Marge Piercy
- Always Unsuitable by Marge Piercy
- about emptiness… by Marina Cecilia Kohon
- A Work Of Artifice by Marge Piercy
- A Grave by Marianne Moore
- Woman by Manmohan Acharya
- Without exile, who am I? by Mahmoud Darwish
- Winter’s End by Mac McGovern
- Wind by Mac McGovern
- What these girl means to me by Maphoto selokela
- Two Stranger Birds in Our Feathers by Mahmoud Darwish
- Tip-Toe-ing by Mahak Raithatha S
- They Would Love To See Me Dead by Mahmoud Darwish
- These nights by Manushya Puthiran
- The Sound Of Your Breathing by Mac McGovern
- The Pigeons Fly by Mahmoud Darwish
- The Mouse by Mac McGovern
- The Most Exquisite Creature Of My Dreams by Mac McGovern
- The Husband’s Black Hands by Mallika Sengupta
- The Frivolity of Dreaming by Mahi Chauhan
- The Eve of Saint Agnes by Malcolm Massiah
- The end by Mahak Raithatha S
- The cake by Mahak Raithatha S
- Thanksgiving by Mac Hammond
- State of Siege by Mahmoud Darwish
- Southern Song by Margaret Walker
- Soul by Malkia Charlee NoCry
- Sonnet V by Mahmoud Darwish
- She’s Flawless by Mandy Williams
- She Looks by Mac McGovern
- She got her wings by Mahak Raithatha S
- Set out by Mahak Raithatha S
- Rita And The Rifle by Mahmoud Darwish
- Psalm Three by Mahmoud Darwish
- Psalm 9 by Mahmoud Darwish
- Pride and Fury by Mahmoud Darwish
- Postip by Manolo Arriola
- Poema LX, El albergue by Mara Romero Torres
- Poema II, “Pañuelos de La Alhambra” by Mara Romero Torres
- Pequeña niña mía by Mara Romero Torres
- Passport by Mahmoud Darwish
- Pañuelos de La Alhambra by Mara Romero Torres
- Ontological by Maggie Anderson
- Only Iraq by Mahmoud Darwish
- Oh My Father, I am Yusif by Mahmoud Darwish
- October Journey by Margaret Walker
- Nube by Manolo Arriola
- No Matter What You Write by Mac McGovern
Arthur Seymour John Tessimond (1902 -1962) was an English poet. He had a tumultuous childhood, ran from boarding school, went to work, somehow attended the University of Liverpool, avoided service in WWI and then discovered that he is unfit for military service after he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which in those days was known as manic depression. A.S. Tessimond is a wonderful poet though maybe somewhat underappreciated poet. He died from in 1962 from a brain haemorrhage.