Poetry Friday

I love my Ted Hughes: Collected Poems for Children (illustrated by Raymond Briggs) so much, I'm going to quote from it one more time. This week's entry is "The Cat."

The Cat

You need your Cat.
When you slump down
All tired and flat
With too much town

With too many lifts
Too many floors
Too many neon-lit
Corridors

Too many people
Telling you what
You just must do
And what you must not

With too much headache
Video glow
Too many answers
You will never know

Then stroke the Cat
That warms your knee
You'll find her purr
Is a battery

For into your hands
Will flow the powers
Of the beast who ignore
These ways of ours

And you'll be refreshed
Through the Cat on your lap
With a Leopard's yawn
And a Tiger's nap.

This lovely, true poem is especially appropriate for this rainy day when I am completing my reading of His Dark Materials (all those cat daemons).
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There are lots of great Poetry Friday contributions this week: Anne at Book Buds reviews Fluffy, Scourge of the Sea (a poem about pirates!), Liz B. at A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy brings us a beautiful ode from Thomas Hood, Becky reminds us of Spring and Mother's Day in the guise of a May Sarton poem at Farm School, Wendy contributes Billy Collin's "The Lanyard" (in honor of Mother's Day) at Blog from the Windowsill, A Fuse #8 Productions reviews Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie, Michele celebrates Edward Lear's birthday with "The Jumblies" at Scholar's Blog, Little Willow also blogs of cats with T.S. Eliot's "The Old Gumbie Cat" at Slayground, and The Simple and the Ordinary lets Mary Morrison do the talking for Mother's Day.

Update! Two more entries: Jen Robinson with "Ode to a Grecian Urn" at Jen Robinson's Book Page and Susan Taylor Brown (whose Hugging the Rock) is in my summer reading pile contributes an original work!

One more update! Don't miss Susan's account of an hilarious attempt at Poetry Friday with junior at Chicken Spaghetti.