What... Watts's Cat!
IN THE HAND OF GOD
In & out
amongst
sunlight & shadows
the dead
come alive
as we speak
their names
make them real again
let them live in our voices
each tombstone
eager for us
to say them
into living
when out of
nowhere
a very Victorian looking
chap
(the image
of Mr. Watts)
pops up
as if he were
the old guy
himself...in the flesh
tired of the grave
and dying to stretch his legs.
We turn
a corner
and he is gone
lost amongst
shadows
blinded by the sun
leaving us only
this ginger & white cat
who kindly
shows us around
mewing loudly
all the time.
***
THEIR HOPE IS FULL OF IMMORTALITY
Sunlight
shines through a church of trees
deciduous
stained glass leaves
God moving
in his usual mysterious ways
shadows gathering
like worshippers
as the day’s prayer
comes to an end.
****
BE MY VOICE NEITHER FEARED NOR FORGOTTEN
We pat
the cat
(all purrs)
& turn
towards the turn
of the hill
only
to encounter
it instantly again
& then turn
again to see it still
behind us.
We see we saw it
but can’t believe what we’ve seen.
Our minds swing
see-sawing our senses.
His son
it seems
has appeared
on the scene
younger but
the same
in colour and configuration
which thus explains
the cat’s bi-location.
Mr. Young Cat
disappears as quietly
as it had appeared
& Mr. Old Cat
still loudly laughing at
our confusion
continues
to show us
around
as if he were
Mr. Watts
reincarnated in
ginger & white
& answering now
to the name Tom.
***
THE GARMENTS OF PRAISE
Entering
the Watts’s Cemetery
we are greeted
by the cat
who
without much ado
escorts us from
tombstone to tombstone
mewing among
magnificent yew trees
keeping up
a running commentary.
Neither of us
speaks cat
(it’s mews to us)
but we get the gist
of what he’s at.
Here he rests
on a memorial bench.
Here he sits
upon the hump of a grave
following us
into Lady Mary’s Chapel
still acting
as our tour guide.
He escorts us
off the premises
after we pay his fee
(yet another tickle...yet another cuddle)
We give him a tip
a chuck under the chin.
“Miaow! ” he says to us
“Miaow! ” we say to him.
Both of us fluent now
in Cat.
We turn
seeing him become
a shade
lost among shadows
as he awaits
the next customers
unlatching the gate.
***
Written today after a visit to the amazingly beautiful WATTS CHAPEL...the Arts and Crafts Memorial to the great Victorian painter G. F. Watts designed by his wife Mary to be a magnificent jewel in the world of architecture...if architecture could be a poem then this chapel is it. Our visit was made all the more worthy by the attentions of a very old cat who made himself part and parcel of our visit. He and it - a delight to the senses and to the heart.
poem by Dónall Dempsey
Added by Poetry Lover
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