You Know How a Cat

will bring a mouse it has
caught and lay it at your

feet so each morning I
bring you a poem that

I've written when I woke
up in the night as my tribute

to your beauty &
a promise of my love.

-James Laughlin

Across the ages, cats have provided their adopted humans with companionship, affection, mystery, and innumerable metaphors.
Cats raise a mirror up to their beholders; cats endlessly captivate and hypnotise, frustrate and delight. To poets, in particular, these enigmatic creatures are the most delightful and beguiling of muses, as they purr, prowl, hunt, play, meow, and nap, often oblivious to their so-called masters. Cat Poems offers a litter of odes to our beloved felines by some of the greatest poets of all time.

Contributions by: Elizabeth Bishop, Stevie Smith, Ezra Pound, Charles Baudelaire, William Carlos Williams, Rainer Maria Rilke, Amy Lowell, W.B. Yeats