ThursdayAfternoon
31-08-2011, 11:51 PM
I absolutely love this poem.
There's a kind of unknowing magic to it. I found a collection of Marylyn Plessner's work in a second hand book shop, but can't find out much more about her on the internet, which is quite frustrating.
I did find this astounding reading of the poem though on the poetry site Annexe Magazine.
Cats
Inside the Coliseum, the Roman cats
are playing on the ruins
of the Christian martyrs’ cells.
At the forum Romanum
they sun themselves
on broken stone,
and in the shelter
of Constantine’s great arch
new generations are born
and weaned.
At the Basilica, certain of Eternity,
watched by the waiting cats,
the pilgrims queue
to touch the stone remains
of Peter’s foot,
and gaze through toughened glass
at the pieta:
evidence that God is good.
There's a kind of unknowing magic to it. I found a collection of Marylyn Plessner's work in a second hand book shop, but can't find out much more about her on the internet, which is quite frustrating.
I did find this astounding reading of the poem though on the poetry site Annexe Magazine.
Cats
Inside the Coliseum, the Roman cats
are playing on the ruins
of the Christian martyrs’ cells.
At the forum Romanum
they sun themselves
on broken stone,
and in the shelter
of Constantine’s great arch
new generations are born
and weaned.
At the Basilica, certain of Eternity,
watched by the waiting cats,
the pilgrims queue
to touch the stone remains
of Peter’s foot,
and gaze through toughened glass
at the pieta:
evidence that God is good.