Hope: a poetry post

Yesterday I travelled away by myself for the first time in eleven years!

I enjoyed sitting on various trains, secure in the knowledge that the kids were having lots of fun. My lovely mother in law even sent me photos. She knows what I'm like.

I arrived in Ilkley and met my mum, wandering back to her house along familiar streets. Once there she stuck the kettle on, and I called my husband to let him know I had arrived safely. Only we didn't discuss my journey.

He had got in from a nice day out with the kids to find Katsuma very unwell. It seemed that he'd thrown another blood clot, and I talked K through how to check, and where I had secreted the supply of cat morphine for just this situation.

After that I drank tea with my mum while K took Katsuma to the vet for the last time.

He was a fantastic cat, and I wish he could have stayed longer, but at least we got to love him for a while.

Here's my hope for him now...

Hope

I hope that there is some great hall of Bast:

a final resting place for fearsome cats

where days are spent in hunting mice and birds

and lying in the grass with sun-warmed fur;

where evenings bring fresh tuna and the treats

that cats with heart disease don't get to eat.

I hope that cushions suitable are found

and time can well be spent lazing around.

Goodnight pudding. I'll miss you.

Comments

February update!

Hello! Please see above for a screenshot (not sure who the photo is by) from the lovely Fragmented Voices website which has my poem, Escaping Pheasants, as their featured poem today. This poem is inspired by the pheasants which are brought in to our local country house for people who are that way inclined to shoot. Sometimes I see them flapping down from the estate wall and on to the busy road, making a break for it toward the moors. Good luck pheasants. Escaping Pheasants also features in my book, Little Gods, published by the marvellous Roswell Publishing and available from booksellers and Amazon, or get in touch to get a signed copy from me. Other recent successes include two poems in Obsessed with Pipework #105, a Haiku in Coin Operated Press ' Haiku Zine, The Libraries came out in Culture Matters' Bread & Roses Anthology, and, as I mentioned last time, When you slow a bit you can see the way , another poem from Little Gods, came out in Butcher's Dog #19. I have ...

A wee update

Hello! Thought I'd give you a wee update on how things are going in my world! Little Gods came out with Roswell Press at the end of September 2023 and I was really busy for the first bit of October, reading poems from the new book at various local events. I'm really grateful for all the books people bought, but there's still copies available, either online via Amazon for Kindle or in paperback, or you can get in touch with me at caralmckee (at) gmail (dot) com to get a signed copy of Little Gods and/or First Kiss sent to you in the post! After my reading frenzy at the beginning of October I took a little break for a birthday celebration frenzy (it's still going on, there's a lot to celebrate). I've been meaning to read a couple of poems online too, but I'm having a flare of trigeminal neuralgia which is triggered by talking, so that will come when it comes. I'm hoping to read at the Scottish Writer's Centre launch of their new Mountain & Glen ...

Winter is ending update

I've been doing lots of research lately on Scottish history, which is showing me just how much we never move on even if we think we're dead modern. I've also been writing poetry, I've been super inspired by Jacqueline Saphra's amazing poem Cimex Lectularius (see my post here for more on that), and have been writing a poem a week because of that, and informed by all my Scottish history research, and also the ongoing slow-motion car crash which is Brexit (as I write Westminster have rejected no-deal but not actually got rid of it, and they've asked for an extension but not actually got it *sigh*). Anyway, I've had a couple of bits of good news. Firstly, I'm going to have another poem in the May edition of the wonderful online poetry magazine Picaroon Poetry - such a good magazine, I'm chuffed to bits to be in again. Secondly, my poem about a grumpy old man who was genuinely in a swimming pool with me is going to be in this year's Speculative Bo...

Skeleton Architecture

Search This Blog