Snuggle

I found the featured photo here:

Dog’s Death by Updike Does Its Work

It reminded me of how nice it is to snuggle under a soft, warm comforter on a cold morning (besides being an awesome photo). 🙂

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/30/179845420/a-cartoon-tribute-to-cats-and-the-poets-who-loved-them

Tuesday marks the close of National Poetry Month, a 30-day celebration of all things versified and all people versifying. And in tangentially related news, for more than eight months, a book of cat-themed poetry — I Could Pee On This — has perched on the NPR best-seller lists. There it sits, insouciantly swishing its tail amid self-help books and memoirs, the poetry world’s sole representative on the list.

Gazing at this collection of “poems by cats” week after week, I wondered: What is it about cats and poetry? Poets gaze out rain-streaked windows, write with fountain pens, drink tea, have cats: So goes the stereotype.

Is it true? As far as I know, no one has conducted a strictly scientific study of whether poets are more covered in cat hair than the rest of the population. But statistically significant or not, cats and poets certainly have a long history. NPR books asked Francesco Marciuliano, the author of I Could Pee On This as well as a comic strip writer and a cartoonist, to help walk us through some notable cat-poet duos … starting with Christopher Smart and his cat, Jeoffry…

And finally, bringing our survey of cat-loving poets into the contemporary era, the Canadian poet and novelist Margaret Atwood is a confirmed cat lover. In 1977, she drew a cartoon of herself covered in cats, writing, “I have a lot of cats. What else can you do with a B.A. these days?” An unofficial survey reports that the sentiment rings true for many English majors today.

Atwood’s cat poems include moving elegies and playful depictions of everyday life, and some poems that are both: “Oh pillow hog, / with your breath of raw liver, / where are you now?”

Are you convinced that cats and poets are linked by more than popular stereotype? Or are you on the side of Emily Dickinson, who definitely did not take a cat with her to visit the sea? Share your favorite cat-enthusiast, dog-loving, or other-pet-crazy poet in the comments.