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
- France by Siegfried Sassoon
- Fight to a Finish by Siegfried Sassoon
- Fancy Dress by Siegfried Sassoon
- Falling Asleep by Siegfried Sassoon
- Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon
- Enemies by Siegfried Sassoon
- Elegy by Siegfried Sassoon
- Editorial Impressions by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dryads by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dreamers by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dream-Forest by Siegfried Sassoon
- Does It Matter? by Siegfried Sassoon
- Died of Wounds by Siegfried Sassoon
- Devotion to Duty by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dead Musicians by Siegfried Sassoon
- Daybreak In A Garden by Siegfried Sassoon
- David Cleek by Siegfried Sassoon
- Counter-Attack by Siegfried Sassoon
- Conscripts by Siegfried Sassoon
- Concert Party by Siegfried Sassoon
- Companions by Siegfried Sassoon
- Butterflies by Siegfried Sassoon
- Break of Day by Siegfried Sassoon
- Bombardment by Siegfried Sassoon
- Blind by Siegfried Sassoon
- Blighters by Siegfried Sassoon
- Before the Battle by Siegfried Sassoon
- Before Day by Siegfried Sassoon
- Battalion-Relief by Siegfried Sassoon
- Base Details by Siegfried Sassoon
- Banishment by Siegfried Sassoon
- Autumn by Siegfried Sassoon
- Attack by Siegfried Sassoon
- At Daybreak by Siegfried Sassoon
- At Carnoy by Siegfried Sassoon
- Arms and the Man by Siegfried Sassoon
- Arcady Unheeding by Siegfried Sassoon
- Ancient History by Siegfried Sassoon
- Ancestors by Siegfried Sassoon
- An Old French Poet by Siegfried Sassoon
- Alone by Siegfried Sassoon
- Aftermath by Siegfried Sassoon
- Absolution by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Working Party by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Whispered Tale by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Wanderer by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Subaltern by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Poplar and the Moon by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Mystic As Soldier by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Letter Home by Siegfried Sassoon
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.