"On the last day of the world I would want to plant a tree.” — W.S. Merwin
  • Couch cat, wilderness cat

    (2)
    Posted on May 15th, 2009sherryCatblogging, Photography, Poets

    sherbert
    Photo by T R Williams

    Our City is Guarded by Automatic Rockets

    3.
    There is a place behind our hill so real
    it makes me turn my head, no matter. There
    in the last thicket likes the cornered cat
    saved by its claws, now ready to spend
    all there is left of the wilderness, embracing
    its blood. And that is the way that I will spit
    life, at the end of any trail where I smell any hunter,
    because I think our story should not end—
    or go on in the dark with nobody listening.

    — William Stafford, from The Way It Is. New & Selected Poems (Graywolf, 1999).

    This is a poem in three numbered sections. I’ve only given you the last section. That’s not fair. Go and find the poem and read it.

    You’ll also find an interpretive essay/memoir piece about Stafford by Jonathan Holder, “William Stafford: Genius in Camouflage,” here at Valparaiso Review. Holder says:

    Like a fox, like a wildcat, Stafford lived his life in camouflage. He camouflaged his true nature.

    . . .

    There is another side of Stafford, though, that dispenses with camouflage. It is not affable. It is fierce. We glimpse this side, at the end of “Our City Is Guarded by Automatic Rockets . . .”

    Possibly related posts:

      One view of capital justice
      James Baker Hall (1935-2009)
      The shape of a poem
      What is redeemed by life?
      Cats and angry young men

    Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

    , ,

2 Responses to “Couch cat, wilderness cat”

  1. Joanie DiMartino

    I wanna know what the books are in your hand and on your lap! :-)

    Ciao!

  2. Joanie — the books are Annie Finch’s The Body of Poetry, in my hand, and on my lap Ellen Eslinger’s Running Mad for Kentucky, Anne Shelby’s Appalachian Studies, and William Stafford’s The Way It Is, the copy you all gave me when we had the master class with James Baker Hall with all those lovely inscriptions and signatures! A precious volume in many ways.

Leave a Reply

 
RSS feed

Archives

Categories

Recent Comments

  • Helen Losse: And hope you feel better soon.
  • Helen Losse: Sherry, Thanks for the shout out. I might not have written this if I’d been able to log in and comment on nascar.com. But I...
  • Rebecca Clayton: Man, those bunnies are tough. I’m lucky my kitty is easier to please. Feel better soon!
  • Sherry: Man, you can’t ever please them rabbits. And as for Sam Pepys, if he had to keep it in his pants one day the world was probably a...
  • poppysmatus: Exactly 343 years ago Sam Pepys also was afflicted with a cold and laryngitis. Looks like he was obliged to be a good boy that day,...

Theme Switcher

What I'm Doing...

  • A great business of birds in the trees and on the grass. Spring is late and like Casey Jones they need to see those drivers roll. 8 hrs ago
  • Buzzards struggle to leave the earth, their soaring bought dear. Grackles and jays fly with working wings. Finches and chickadees levitate. 1 day ago
  • A morning loud with grackle squawk and braying jays. But southeast, as sun tops trees, a single cardinal brings the day in tune. 2 days ago
  • I step out the backdoor to gaze at the moon and tangle my feet in a begging raccoon. 3 days ago
  • More updates...

Powered by Twitter Tools

 
my 'read' shelf:
 my read shelf

Sherry's favorite quotes


"Art is not about itself but the attention we bring to it."— Marcel Duchamp

Artistic Support

Sherry Chandler has received professional development funding and a Professional Assistance Award through the Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Kentucky Arts Council Sherry has also received an Artist Enrichment grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. kfw
CURRENT MOON