Rrreoo wwWW! hiss! hiss!
He was beginning to notice a disturbing pattern.
Every time Terry Trowbridge, a 31-year-old St. Catharines poet, would enter the York St. apartment of his female friend, immediately (in an uncanny sort of way) he would sense her two cats sizing him up. Charm, the black-and- white kitty. And The Other One, an appropriately nameless, patchy orange-black-and-white calico.
He'd sit on the sofa.
And then ... well, here's how he describes the inevitable progression of events.
"Her cats would take this horrible, malodorous dump," he says.
"Then they'd immediately run into the living room and come sit on my lap."
Time after time.
As if his mere presence somehow triggered this cataclysmic turn of events.
So, what's a writer to do but warp the experience into a book. Mostly, for revenge. But also to foster conversation about self-doubt, litter boxes, the crowded single life and complexities of human relationships (not necessarily in that order).
In his latest work of literary meditation, That's Why They S**t So Much, Self Help for Living with Passive Aggressive Cats (Grey Borders Books, $7), he fictionalizes the life of his cat-owner friend as he explores the nuances of relationships.
Trowbridge is among the poets, authors and other literary types who are doing readings across the region this month as part of the Niagara Literary Arts Festival.
His final reading is on the last day of the festival -- June 30 -- along with other poets, at 7 p.m. at Patrick Sheehan's on St. Paul St.
He describes the month's events as a symptom of a burgeoning poetry scene in downtown St. Catharines.
In his book, consider how, on Page 1, he nails down the human's role in an often complex cat-human friendship.
"You're at the bottom of the food chain already and you've only been home from vacation five hours.
When you came home, they made an ungodly stink that has to be the single most profound expression of the boredom that made you leave in the first place.
That's how they tell you there's no escape."
Consider, also, all the feline demands that people routinely capitulate to, he says.
"They boss humans around.
"It's two cats versus one. That's four times the legs; you're out gunned right there.
"And they have fangs." Still, we cater to their whims.
"We provide the laundry basket with clean clothes that we will wear to work," he says.
Poems About Cats - News
He avoids stepping on ants. Trowbridge has worked as a teaching assistant at Brock. And since Slimy Bugs (poems he created in his 20s), his writing has evolved. Ripened. Matured. He pauses, smiles, then explains: "Now I'm writing about cat poop.
But he has also written short poems about local cats and squirrels. Walker's experience in the Middle East dates back to 1969, when he first landed a job in Saudi Arabia teaching English. The Hoboken resident has traveled all over the world to
From then on he bombards her (she claims) with poems and texts. He insists they had met each other in a past life. But she prefers to fantasise about a cooler London man she's met and nothing comes of it. Fastforward to July 2010, and she changes her
Once they sunk their claws in, though, the youthful cast collectively arched its backs and let the energy flow in this tightly directed production. songs Webber wrote to accompany poems from TS Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Cats.
Even though he has been nominated for an Oregon Book Award for poetry, it was a frustrating exercise. However, while at a bookstore, he spied the small Knopf books, which practically begged to be bought for gifts. "There were poems about cats,
Many Velvet Eared Musical Cats Joyfully Sing Utter Nonsense Poems ...
≪a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cincinnatipubliclibrary/5842830869/" title="Many Velvet Eared Musical Cats Joyfully Sing Utter Nonsense Poems Expertly by Jeanne C. Clark by Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2802/5842830869_85a3bfed14.jpg" width="500" height="399" alt="Many Velvet Eared Musical Cats Joyfully Sing Utter Nonsense Poems Expertly by Jeanne C. Clark"></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cincinnatipubliclibrary/5842830869/" title="Many Velvet Eared Musical Cats Joyfully Sing Utter Nonsense Poems Expertly by Jeanne C. Clark by Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2802/5842830869_85a3bfed14_t.jpg" width="100" height="80" alt="Many Velvet Eared Musical Cats Joyfully Sing Utter Nonsense Poems Expertly by Jeanne C. Clark"></a> [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/cincinnatipubliclibrary/5842830869/][img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2802/5842830869_85a3bfed14_t.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/cincinnatipubliclibrary/5842830869/]Many Velvet Eared Musical Cats Joyfully Sing Utter Nonsense Poems Expertly by Jeanne C. Clark[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/cincinnatipubliclibrary/]Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County[/url], on Flickr <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cincinnatipubliclibrary/5842830869/" title="Many Velvet Eared Musical Cats Joyfully Sing Utter Nonsense Poems Expertly by Jeanne C. Clark by Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2802/5842830869_85a3bfed14_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="Many Velvet Eared Musical Cats Joyfully Sing Utter Nonsense Poems Expertly by Jeanne C. Clark"></a> [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/cincinnatipubliclibrary/5842830869/][img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2802/5842830869_85a3bfed14_s.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/cincinnatipubliclibrary/5842830869/]Many Velvet Eared Musical Cats Joyfully Sing Utter Nonsense Poems Expertly by Jeanne C. Clark[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/cincinnatipubliclibrary/]Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County[/url], on Flickr <a href="http://www.flickr.
Poems About Cats - Bookshelf
Cat Poems
In this collection of poems, Dave Crawley pays tribute to the fabulous, finicky felines he has known and loved since childhood, capturing classic cat antics ...Poems about Cats
The great cat, poems about cats
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
A collection of T. S. Eliot's poems which concern cats including "Mr. Mistoffelees," and "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat."Cat poems
Check Information Directory
Cat Poems
The Stray Cat - A Poem For Children - Rebecca Hobbs. Family Ties - D Blakeman-Barratt ... There's been a lot written about cats, by Old Possum, Yeats and Company ...
Poems About Cats
The reason for this page is simple. I love poetry and I love cats. Many poets have written about our feline friends and some are presented here in tradition
PRAYERS AND POEMS ABOUT CATS
PRAYERS AND POEMS ABOUT CATS. THE PRAYER OF THE CAT. Oh my master, do not take me for a ... From mange, cat flu, feline enteritis and all the ills cats are heir to, ...
Cat Poems
Inspirational poems and poetry ... Cat Poems. Poems about cats and cute kitten poems. a Cat haiku sequence. Cat wanders lightly. Stops to lick his dirty paws. He is ...
CAT POEMS
Read poems on cat. Best cat poems. poem about cats.