"She sights a Bird - she chuckles -"
poem by Emily Dickinson (about 1862)

She sights a Bird - she chuckles - She flattens - then she crawls - She runs without the look of feet - Her eyes increase to Balls - Her Jaws stir - twitching - hungry - Her Teeth can hardly stand - She leaps, but Robin leaped the first - Ah, Pussy, of the Sand, The Hopes so juicy ripening - You almost bathed your Tongue - When Bliss disclosed a hundred Toes - And fled with every one - Poem #507, from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson (Little, Brown), copyright 1955 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

The Hairball and the Mouse by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Cat from POETRY FOR CATS by Henry Beard

 

I chased a mouse beneath the stair, It went to ground, I knew not where; For, so swiftly it ran, my sight Could not follow it in its flight. I coughed a hairball in the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For though my sight is sharp and true, I saw not where that fur-bullet flew. Some time afterward, quite by chance, I spied them both in a single glance; For the mouse in a corner lay dead, A hairball lodged in his tiny head.

Famous cat poems

The Naming Of Cats

by T. S. Eliot

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,

It isn't just one of your holiday games;

You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter

When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,

Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,

Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey--

All of them sensible everyday names.

There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,

Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:

Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter--

But all of them sensible everyday names.

But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,

A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,

Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,

Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?

Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,

Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,

Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-

Names that never belong to more than one cat.

But above and beyond there's still one name left over,

And that is the name that you never will guess;

The name that no human research can discover--

But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,

The reason, I tell you, is always the same:

His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation

Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:

His ineffable effable

Effanineffable

Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

UNIVERSAL WRITERS' TIP:

GET A CAT.

(The one pictured is Sid.)
Monica wood

The Pocket Muse

This morning I feel, that this is so far the best advice I received today.

With my cat sitting practically in my lap

Between me and the keyboard

Shedding white hair on both of us,

Me and the keyboard

Purring softly in my ear

She will not budge an inch

So with one hand I embrace her

(and keep her body from the keys)

With the other I click away

Leaning over her

I know it looks strange

But the radiating warmth

Mingles with fluffy soft hair

Reminds me every time not to take myself

Too seriously.