Are there any cat-loving gardeners out there?

THURSDAY

(c) Laura Stamps

After the plumber,
who likes cats, fixed the
leaky pipe in the kitchen;
after my energetic cat
sneezed into a pyramid
of drywall dust, freckling
her kohl face with sandy
snowflakes; I stand
in the garden, watering
lilies and daisies, when
a tiny lizard, only an
inch in length, dives
from a leaf to avoid the
blue lake pooling from
the hose, and dashes up
the siding on the house.
I watch him climb for
a while, then turn away
to a bed of geraniums,
but glancing back, I
notice he has vanished.
Walking to the porch,
I find him two feet above
my head, dangling by
his tail from the white
whisker of a spider web,
his arms and legs
extended like an open
hand, frozen in flight.
The broom sweeps him
to safety, as I remove
the web glued to his tail,
and he scampers down
the brick steps, his chest
thumping, remembering
the time when he hung
like a postage stamp
affixed to the pale
envelope of the sky;
yearning only to hop
through cool castles of
fern, dandelion, and ivy;
no longer envying
the glossy wings of the
swallowtail or dragonfly;
no longer burning with
lofty ideas of flight;
just another earth-
walker content to live
a luminous life.

**********
Hope you enjoy this poem! It is from my book "In the Garden."

Very nice, thanks for sharing it! :-)

I'm glad you enjoyed it! It is one of my favorites. I am a professional poet and run a publishing company called Kittyfeather Press. I am the author of more than 25 books of poetry and fiction, and my poems, short stories, and poetry book reviews have appeared in more than 600 magazines worldwide. You'll find more cat and gardening poems on my website, plus info about my latest books. This past weekend I signed a contract with Artemesia Publishing to publish my new book of cat poems called THE YEAR OF THE CAT. It will come out in July or August and is being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. I am still in shock a little about that, and I feel very blessed.

I see gardening is also a hobby of yours. This year I am crazy about bulbs and have Asiatic lilies, day lilies, gardenias, anemones, geraniums, and gerber daisies coming up in my 3 gardens, many already blooming gloriously. I also have a spinach and leaf lettuce garden growing in pots in my office window. My latest gardening experiment! Tell me about your garden this year.

Meow, Laura

I like this! Thanks for posting!

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. I see you have a black cat. I have 4 and just posted a poem for those who love black cats. Hope you enjoy that one too.

By the way, if you are a gardener, here are two fabulous garden forums I have found (http://forums.about.com/ab-gardening/start) and (www.blossomswap.com/garden-forums/index.php). I am a member of both and thoroughly enjoy them. They are informative, fun, and the members seem to be very nice. To be a cat-lover and a gardener...what could be better!

No, but I've had my share of "GARDEN-LOVING CATS"!