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Monday 24 June 2019

Poetry Monday: Portals

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is ........... PORTALS.

Join Delores, MotherOwl, and me as we peer into this topic and transport you to another realm with our portal poetry ... hopefully ...

You can leave a poem in the comments, or post on your own blog. If you do the latter, please leave a comment so we know how to find you and your poem. Feel free to use the given topic or any other topic of your choosing; the idea is to have fun and make our brains fire a little faster.

*****

I was unsure how to approach this topic at first. While I enjoy science fiction, I haven't read anything about portals for a long, long time. Are there portals in the Harry Potter books? I don't read them, so I don't know. But Delores gave me a few tips over on her blog Mumblings, and that helped.

And then one day I was watching our cat Lulu play inside a large brown paper bag, and my path forward was suddenly clear.

Lulu doesn't consider what she does in that large brown paper bag to be "play". She's completely serious when she enters that portal, and uses all eighteen of her claws to attack whatever is on the other side.

(Just between you and me, the only thing in that bag when I looked inside was a piece of kitty litter, but I think human eyes and kitty eyes see things differently.)

*****

i am feerce kat

in my kingdom
i rool benev  benoval
kindly
with velvet paw

there is much peece
but there is wun place
uv grate danger
full uv monsters

i gard portal vall  valyia
bravely
and i battul monsters
with all my mite

they are feerce
but i am feercer
i keep my subjet  subjekt  peepul safe
and i do not get a singul scratch

rawrrrrr



Lulu guarding the portal to monsterland. She was feeling self-conscious here because she doesn't like to have her picture taken. You should have seen her after she wrote that poem, though -- talk about self-confidence!!



Apologies to those whose mother tongue is not English; the kitty's spelling is not good. I hope it makes sense to you :)

*****

Wishing you a peeceful week with zero monsters to battul.


Next week's topic is ............... DRONE .......... Good luck!




56 comments:

Anonymous said...

Charming little piece. Lulu does a fine job.

Susan said...

You have a nimble mind! This might be my favourite so far. I think you would enjoy the Harry Potter books. As an adult reader I enjoyed the layers of philosophy, science, mythology and ethics. In answer to your questions, health wise it took about a year to get my bounce back, no bounce resulted in no blogging and then I got out of the habit. I really should get back to it. I do write a blog for our garden club but I have to behave myself there.

Elephant's Child said...

I am more camera shy than Lulu - and love her poem.

Janie Junebug said...

Good morning, Jenny! I love Lulu's poem. She's very talented.

Love,
Janie

dinthebeast said...

Very nice poem.

Portals are terribly important to a cat. Meow, meow, meow*scratches at door* meow...
*opens door*
*pokes nose through door and just stands there*

It seems like it's the option they want, the open portal, more than going outside, most of the time.
Unless they have to pee, then all bets are off.

Music is my idea of a portal. A sound that just by listening to it I can be transported to other places or times or mental or emotional states that I have associated with that particular sound, and not any other.

-Doug in Oakland

River said...

Your Lulu looks very much like my Lola. I wonder if Lola would play with a paper bag? Large ones are hard to find here.

Charlotte (MotherOwl) said...

Hehe, I believe in portals. Lulu's portal to monsterland is fantastic. Kudos / kodos / whatever to Lulu and her ghost ... wride ... rite .. rider ;)

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

How fortunate you are to have a guardian of the bag. My Daisy guards a box. So far, no monsters have escaped and we sleep well at night.

only slightly confused said...

awww....sweet brave kitty....thank goodness someone is guarding that dangerous portal. Great job Jenny.

37paddington said...

oh i love that poem, especially kitty's vall valyia BRAVE effort to spell the exact right word, before finding another exact right word. thank you kitty for guarding us from monsters. you're spelling and compensation techniques remind me of my son when he was in grade school. the words in his writing were always the ones he could spell. the child was a veritable thesaurus!

Steve Reed said...

Cats and bags! What IS it with cats and bags?! By the way, how do you know your cat can't spell more accurately? :)

jenny_o said...

Thank you; I will tell her so :)

jenny_o said...

Maybe I should take another look at the HP books sometime. I read part of one and it didn't appeal, but that was quite a few years ago. People's tastes can change.

I'm glad to hear you are feeling better now. If you start your blog up again, please let me know!

jenny_o said...

Me too, EC. And thank you; I'll let her know :)

jenny_o said...

She's been reading your blog, I think. "If those DOGS can write, then maybe I can too" :)

jenny_o said...

Ah - that's an interesting take on the topic, Doug. So very true.

And I hadn't thought about actual doors as a cat portal - that's true too!

jenny_o said...

They do look alike, don't they? We don't often get large paper bags either, but our local Value Village (second-hand store) uses them sometimes and I was lucky enough to get one.

jenny_o said...

Ha ha! Thank you from both of us :)

jenny_o said...

She is clearly doing an excellent job! Where would we be without our cats?

jenny_o said...

It was fun - probably one of my favourite poems to write so far. Thanks for the topic, D.!

jenny_o said...

Hah! He was smart - why get the spelling wrong when you can just pick a different word? The merits of having a good vocabulary :)

jenny_o said...

She TOLD me! She also told me not to correct anything she wrote, so I didn't :D

e said...

Sweet Lulu has a way with words...

jenny_o said...

Aw, thanks, e - that'll make her blush when I tell her :)

Bonnie said...

Lulu is a beautiful cat and she reminds me a bit of my two tabbies. They do love bags and boxes and do a good job of chasing away monsters too! Lulu is also an excellent poet! Please tell her I enjoyed her poem and send her a scratch on the head from me.

messymimi said...

She is probably a very confident monster slayer when no camera points her way. A fun poem, indeed!

Mine took a totally different turn, as i simply saw the word portal as a substitute for the word door.

Marie Smith said...

Lol. Great job on a difficult topic, for me at least.

Joanne Noragon said...

Well said, young kitty.

jenny_o said...

I will! Thank you. Sending your tabbies scritches too :)

jenny_o said...

I liked your poem! You packed a lot of truth into a few lines.

jenny_o said...

Thanks, Marie - it was an Aha! moment after days of fruitless thinking!

jenny_o said...

I'll pass that on; thank you :)

Martha said...

HAHA! This was adorable. You did great.

Cats are very serious about their bags (paper, plastic, cloth, etc.). It's very important business :)

kylie said...

NAILED IT!

...or clawed it?

jenny_o said...

It is, and heaven help us if we laugh, even just a little!

jenny_o said...

Both? lol

Janie Junebug said...

Ah, yes. Franklin and Penelope have a strong influence over other animals. Their posts are much more popular than mine.

jenny_o said...

Humbling, innit? :)

baili said...

This is CUTEST poem ever dear Jenny ;)))

You portrayed so well how she rule and defend her world!!!
I was enjoying his post thoroughly when middle of the poem electricity left suddenly, returned after four hours when we were having tea and i jumped (well almost) and grabbed my phone to complete the poem felt better lol

You portrayed so well how she rule and defend her world SOOO CUTE!

I can see her playing with bag and it reminds me cat that mom had years ago ,it was so much fun to look at her when she was seriously indulged in her business trying to get in handmade cloth bag or scratching around the wall of coop
We all would laugh when she would do so mom would say she is annoyed with hen discussion inside lol

Thank you dear friend for amusing and fun poem!
Hugs!

jenny_o said...

I'm sure your mom was right! Hen discussion, hee hee :)

I'm glad you enjoyed my silly poem, baili - thank you for your encouragement!

LL Cool Joe said...

"i keep my subjet subjekt peepul safe". I constantly do this when I can't spell a word. When in doubt find another word, normally less good but at least I can spell it. :D

One of our cats got a plastic bag caught around her neck and thought she was being chased by the bag. She pissed all over the carpet. So the laughter soon ended in tears.

Diane Henders said...

Ha! I love your poem - so cute! And so true. I'm sure you're right about the difference between kitty eyes and human eyes. We would shudder indeed if we realized what scary monsters live on the other side of the paper portal! Lucky thing we have kitties... oops; I mean'fierce and valiant furry guardians'... to protect us.

jenny_o said...

Yep, I'd rather use a word I can spell, too!

Poor kitty - and on the carpet, too. Ack. One of our cats got a "fishing pole" type of cat toy caught around his tail one time. He ran all over the house, voiding and eliminating all the way. He was terrified, poor guy. It wasn't fun for anybody.

jenny_o said...

Let's just say that if I were a monster, I wouldn't want to face those claws and teeth! (Anyone who's been attacked by a cat will understand why :))

Diane Henders said...

You're right - they're formidable adversaries if they're serious about attacking. I've only been scratched with vicious intent once; and that was only one scratch dealt out of fear when I was trying to give a pill to a cat I was cat-sitting for a friend. I wouldn't want to tackle a cat who truly wanted to harm me. They are EXTREMELY well-armed. And strong. And fast. Owie.

Janie Junebug said...

My goodness, yes. I never thought that dogs who write would be so interesting to people. After all, what do they write about? They complain about me. They complain about each other. They complain about going to the vet. They complain about cats who walk down the street. Complain, complain, complain! They also tell everyone that I never feed them and I ignore them. It's embarrassing!

jenny_o said...

When our cat strikes, she reminds me of a cobra, she's so fast!

jenny_o said...

But they're so amusing! And tug at all the heartstrings :)

Jono said...

A literate, poetically gifted cat is a treasure and that may be the least of her formidable talents! It is good to know she is keeping you safe.

jenny_o said...

If only she could spell! :)

Mr. Shife said...

Love the imagination and creativity with this week's poem, jenny_o. It was pawsome and purrfect.

jenny_o said...

Thanks, Mr. S; it was fun to write.

Susan Kane said...

Cats will battle and defeat just about anything!
Enjoyed your post.

Cherie said...

Perhaps mere mortals when gazing through portals
Might stop to ponder what lies out yonder

jenny_o said...

Thanks for reading, Susan :)

jenny_o said...

Ah, good one, Cherie! I like it.