People have said to me, You seem to like frogs.
They keep jumping into your poems.
I do. I love the way they sit,
compact as a cat and as indifferent
to everything but style, like a lady remembering
to keep her knees together. And I love
the elegant way they jump and
the inelegant way they land.
So human.
I feel so close to them
I must be froggish myself.
I look in the mirror expecting to see
a fairytale Prince.
But no. It's just sprawling me,
croaking away
and swivelling my eyes around
for the stealthy heron and his stabbing beak.
I came across the work of this poem's author while in Scotland - and fell in love with it at once. He wrote many short, witty, metaphorical poems about animals and birds. I thought this delightful poem of his linked nicely with my previous posts on toads and herons. Can anyone take a stab at who the poet is?
They keep jumping into your poems.
I do. I love the way they sit,
compact as a cat and as indifferent
to everything but style, like a lady remembering
to keep her knees together. And I love
the elegant way they jump and
the inelegant way they land.
So human.
I feel so close to them
I must be froggish myself.
I look in the mirror expecting to see
a fairytale Prince.
But no. It's just sprawling me,
croaking away
and swivelling my eyes around
for the stealthy heron and his stabbing beak.
I came across the work of this poem's author while in Scotland - and fell in love with it at once. He wrote many short, witty, metaphorical poems about animals and birds. I thought this delightful poem of his linked nicely with my previous posts on toads and herons. Can anyone take a stab at who the poet is?
12 comments:
Lovely! Thank you.
Blogger/poet Colin Will writes about poet Norman MacCaig a lot and I have feeling I have read about via frogs in the posts too.
Yet another Scottish poet I had not heard of before I moved to Scotland!
x
I had a feeling it was either McCaig or Edwin Morgan - have looked in his complete works and it isn't him, so I'll stick with Rachel's guess.
I see the frogs jumped to the wrong place in my comment. Pesky things.
x
I don't know who wrote this but I like what he wrote. And frogs (-:
Tho' you 'jumped' to the right conclusion, Rachel..! It is indeed MacCaig. What a fantastic poet. Want to do some more posts about him.
Funny! I was reading one today called 'Summer farm' that I liked very much. Evem mentioned him in my post today too!
x
I have never heard of your poet but this one is wonderful. "I love the way they sit, compact as a cat and as indifferent to everything but style, like a lady remembering
to keep her knees together. And I love the elegant way they jump and
the inelegant way they land.
So human." Perfect :D
I, myself, have no great love for frogs, but reading this gives me a new perspective on them...LOL
He has humanized them.
When living in the jungle in Hawaii many years back there were so many I had to squish them between my toes walking in the night. There were so many! You shine the flashlight and they freeze! LOL
Great poem.
Thanks for sharing :D
Yes, and what's even better, is that he frogifies humans, too, Chic!
I love the poem but I have no idea who wrote it! I love frogs, too. Sadly, the ones who used to live in our garden seem to have moved away.
I love the poem - and I love frogs too. Will look out for more of his poems.
One of my favourite poets. Do you know his poem "A Writer"? I have it stuck up on the wall here.
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