The poetry prompt for yesterday was a poetic form, the Katauta poem. This is another Japanese poetry form, almost identical to haiku, in that they both are three lined poems with syllable counts of 5/7/5 syllables (or fewer). The difference is that with this poetic form there are two stanzas, with each being written by a different person, with one, with the second being a reply to the first.
It is written by a pair of lovers, in the Japanese form, but that didn’t suit my life situation at all – happily married for over thirty years, sooky love stuff well and truly over & done with! I think I know my husband well enough by now, to realise he would not be interested in writing in this particular poetic form.
Nothing wrong with that, we all so our own thing, and that is fine, so I came up with another way to use this particular form. I like to use my creativity to work my way around issues like this!
Instead of the truly Japanese way of doing this poetic form, I have taken McTavish the Cat and Buster the Dog, two creatures who live in the imaginations of a writer friend of mine (cat) and mine (dog).
These two creatures will feature in book four of the Buster the Dog series, that began with “Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs”, which was followed by “Doggone It! Mindfulness from a Dog’s Point of View”, and, I thought, with “Dog Buddha’s Thoughts”.
I had thought these three books said all I and Buster the Dog needed to say, but my friend had other ideas, and so along came McTavish the Cat!
So, these two creatures end up living in the same house, after a relationship break up, and then a new one starting. Buster the Dog, and his ‘owner’ move into McTavish the Cat’s owner’s house, and work out how they can all live together. Buster the Dog and McTavish the Cat, might not normally have joined together to become best friends, but such is nature of adversity, and ganging up on a common ‘foe’.
The pair, a dog and a cat, have both previously actively avoided getting too close, but when you live in the same household there are far fewer ways to keep away from each other, and they come to realise they have a lot more in common than they had realised.
Things, are very tricky at the start, but they eventually work out their issues with each other, as they continue finding ways to make life hell for their ‘owners’ and eventually building a loving friendship that is beautiful, hence the poem for this day:
Your feline grace –
you flow across the room
like no other can …
Your canine calm –
you fill the room with peace,
embracing all …
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 