I cannot remember a time when I did not write poetry. I can remember finding this in my daughter's book when she was 7:-
'It is snowing, it is glistening,
It is time for Jesus' christening'
and thinking 'chip off the old block!'.
There will be poems from other sources too,all acknowledged.
My Cat has Been Run Over
I wrote this poem after I found my kitten(called LittleLittle after a painting) dead in the gutter outside my house.
I was so angry !
O God who sees the sparrow fall
Did you see LittleLittle?
Bird-boned, brittle
Blown black handful of fur-and-feather-flutter
Dead and draggled in the gutter?
O God who stirs the heart in the blue shell
Did you forget her that she fell?
And has she gone
Gone
Sucked away into the Once and Then
Never again,
No more?
Poor,poor
LittleLittle,
Wind-wild whiskering leaping loving inky spirit
Blown away into the dark?
Tiny black body lying underground
Deaf,
Dumb,
Death-drowned,
A stranger,stiff and stark;
I must accept you,since I hid you there;
Then why do I still look and long
For warm bones,silk to burrow in,a tongue
Prickly-licking,pencil-puffs of breath
Poking my cheek?and where,O where
Was God
When LittleLittle played with death?
Amazing that I still cry when I read this.....