Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Renée LaTulippe - A Council of Cats

A Council of Cats
by
Renée LaTulippe

A gathering of pinstriped gingers,
tortoiseshells, and calicos
holds a public meeting in
a patch of prudent primrose.

A quivering of well-kept whiskers,
the flexing of a flawless claw,
signals some dissent about
a point of feline law.

I ponder this scene silently,
the puffy tail, suspicious brow,
and wonder how you win a seat
on the Executive Board of Meow.

©Renée LaTulippe. All rights reserved.

Up until reading this poem, I had been unaware that there was any feline law at all - cat behavior seeming random to me - so I must thank Renée LaTulippe for casting light on this little known hierarchy. Unless... wait a second... she's not making this up, is she???? Impossible!

I first got to know Renée's poetry through the blogosphere and saw a lot more of it through March Madness these past two years. I've always loved her playful way with words, her quirky sense of humor sneaking in. I suspect there's no topic she can't find an angle on, and it'll be a fresh angle that you and I hadn't likely thought of. You can see her work on display in the Poetry Friday Anthology (Middle School Edition!), and I am pretty darn sure we'll be seeing more and more of her poetry in print soon enough.

I also want to point you to her blog where she puts up amazing posts (like her video on performing poetry) during her copious free time between writing, acting, editing, and living. It's great stuff all around, and just one of many reasons I'm thrilled to have Renée LaTulippe here at 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday, Steven Herrick spoke of Climate change. Tomorrow, Guadalupe Garcia McCall with Under the Awning/Debajo del Toldo! For more on 30 Poets/30 Days and ways to follow along, please click here.

17 comments:

laurasalas said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
laurasalas said...

Delightful! My favorite line is "flexing of a flawless claw." Oooh! And I am in awe of Renee's video library. Holy. Smokes.

Thanks for sharing Renee and her poem today!

lee wardlaw said...

Purrrrfect!

Dana Carey said...

I love this poem. Once again, Renée has my imagination stirring with her fun images.

Matt Forrest Esenwine said...

Cute poem! Love it.

Renee LaTulippe said...

Thanks everyone, and thank you, Greg, for making me write a poem! I'm honored to be part of your series!

Alex said...

You really captured the Cat purrfectly. Wonderful imagery all though - A quivering of well-kept whiskers - I love it.

Alex said...

You really captured the Cat purrfectly. Wonderful imagery all though - A quivering of well-kept whiskers - I love it.

Ed DeCaria said...

Renee, this reminded me of the Jenny and the Cat Club stories by Esther Averill (awesome "old school" books for kids -- such a pleasure to read aloud).

Thanks for sharing your poem!

-Ed

p.s. My reCAPTCHA word upon commenting? "elphfo" -- I can definitely create a SPAM poem with that.

tanita✿davis said...

Imagining well dressed, snooty cats with half glasses - a quivering of well-kept whiskers - and sharply defined manicures - flexing of a flawless claw -

The imagination boggles.

Julie Rowan-Zoch said...

LOVE! This need to be further developed into a PB, yes?

Anonymous said...

A meow and a purr! This left me contented!

Linda B said...

'a quivering of well-kept whiskers'-absolutely the cats I've known, Renee. Fun poem & I'm glad to see it's in the anthology, too. Thanks for sharing more of Renee, Greg.

Charles Waters said...

Not only is Renee a fine poet but she's just as nice and giving a person. Go Renee Go!!!!

Renee LaTulippe said...

Thanks, Linda - this one isn't in the anthology. It's brand spankin' new just for Greg. :)

Charles - AW! :)

KarolinaS said...

Naturally....I'm quite taken with this one (being the big time kitty-person I am). Thanks for bringing us great poetry all month!

Amy LV said...

Oh, this is so so catty! Beautiful scene and language too, Renee. My cats (and the barn full of kittens) and the children who care for them all are going to love this. Meow!