I was reading the Wizards as Clerics of Magic post by semiurge and it made me resurrect this list, which I was working on last week before I got distracted... This was originally intended as a list of names for small gods or cats (or small gods who manifest as cats) (or appellations for a cat god). It also strikes me that these "small gods" or spirits might be called on by magic users to do certain things. I have not actually detailed the powers or spells associated with each name - I think in some cases there is something pretty obvious, but in others it isn't immediately clear what propitiating such a god (or cat, I mean let's face it they are more or less synonymous anyway) might get you. My hope is that the names are evocative enough that you can think of something (or several somethings) that fit the bill.
Also, at the very end of this is an imitatio of We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks that involves cats. I was fortunate enough to meet her briefly while she was still incarnated here in Chicago. She was a lovely woman and meeting her was an inspiration. I mention this here both because I took direct inspiration from her for the poem and also because she encouraged me to read poetry, and I would like to pass that encouragement on to other people. I hope you enjoy it and even if you don't that you continue to read poetry.
We Hunt Prey
(with apologies to Gwendolyn Brooks)
We hunt prey. We
Spring-play. We
Flop-sleep. We
Dream deep. We
Bump-flit. We
Snarl spit. We
Jump-fly. We
Sneak-spy. We
Trill-speak. We
Zoom-streak. We
Fast blur. We
Soft purr.
- Mellowpaw*
- Mr. Sound
- Ambassador Azrael Extraordinary
- Wild Widow Diligent
- Mickey Barcode
- Artemis Ruqualash
- The Glacier
- Zeppelin Bone
- Judicial System
- Soft Red Glow
- Gravity Need Not Apply
- Precision Instrument
- Possession Is Nine Tenths of the Law
- Open the Door Close the Door Open the Door
- Mercury Gaze
- This Is For You
- Murderclaw*
- Silence of the Aeons
- Assigned Viewing
- Virtue of Inaction
- Death Prophet
- Bonnie Billy Bewildering
- Zipslide Flipside Zoomwilder
- Effortless Grace
- Twill Trill Ear Drill
- Unconscious Desire
- Drag It From the Sky
- Effective Technique
- Once More but Faster and Slyer
- Drifting Bit of Fur
- Take the Babies and Run
- Grandfather Ruin
- Edith Escape Claws
- Saul of the Sumptuous Banquet
- Amadeus Attitude
- Obdurate Octavia Outrageous
- Mona Low Moan
- The Wiggler
- Randy Randall One-eye
- Silky Soft Saboteur
- Lightning Follows Me
- Fastest Path
- I Will Leave A Marcus
- Nate Abhors a Vacuum
- Thomas Turning Tail & Timothy Twisting Tail (these always show up together)
- Perhaps I Didn’t Think This Through
- Izzy Edible
- Twilight’s Heavy Burden
- Critical Hit
- Special Handling
- Current Resident
- Relaxed Atmosphere
- All Things Must Be Devoured
- Cruthington Murder Mitten
- Depth Perception
- Sleek Sweet Susan Deepsleep
- Now How Do I Get Down
- Withering Look
- Shady Sheamus Shameless
- Jellobelly the Pirate
- Soft Killer
- The Infanticide
- Megakratheon**
- This Is My Stomach There Are Many Like It But This One Is Mine
- Howling Fury
- The Hidden Thing
- Sleep Deprived
- Rogue Agent
- Slick Sammy Switchblade
- Loosed Upon The World
- Vasebreaker
- The Surly Churl
- Emperor Steven Eventide
- Number Six
- Willing Prisoner
- Tell Me About the Rabbits
- Double Action
- Marvelous Mildred Midwinter
- The Moon in Daylight
- Ethan Socksbury of Fethingham
- Slackmaster J
- Beauty Set to Music
- The Zorn of Zorna
- Ivan Invisible
- I Go Unnoticed
- The Thorn
- Diffident Dancer
- Best In Life
- The Squint
- Harold Herald of Heroes
- Real Gone
- The Hip Gahn
- Wholly Devoid of Sympathy
- Softest Fur In the Universe
- Enjambment
- Anapest Dactyl
- The Missing Ingredient
- Is It Breakable
- I Was Made For This Box
- High Frequency
We Hunt Prey
(with apologies to Gwendolyn Brooks)
We hunt prey. We
Spring-play. We
Flop-sleep. We
Dream deep. We
Bump-flit. We
Snarl spit. We
Jump-fly. We
Sneak-spy. We
Trill-speak. We
Zoom-streak. We
Fast blur. We
Soft purr.
* Twins
** https://grandcommodore.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-secret-places-of-megakratheon.html
Nice poem :)
ReplyDeleteI'm happy you enjoyed it! This one was fun to write!
DeleteLovely cats, glad they're friends. Glad to have helped inspire this as well - to be in a cohort with Gwendolyn Brooks!
ReplyDeleteSome of the cat names remind me of names for ships from Iain Banks' Culture series - though of course more cat-like. Think Harold, Herald of Heroes is my favourite. The poem, too, expresses that essential cat-ness.
No poet myself, but a few lines came to me the other night - maybe you'll get a kick out of them:
The voice of thunder
Echoing cry
In light born
In darkness die
I'm so glad you enjoyed this! I haven't read Banks' work, perhaps I'll give him a try! I thought too that some of them sounded like ship names! Which makes a certain amount of sense, I guess - I can absolutely understand someone praying to a ship not to capsize during a storm, lol. I think my favorites are probably "Once more But Faster and Slyer" though that might be the guitar player in me, "The Wiggler" just for the images it conjures, and "The Infanticide" - most of the cats I've met adhered more or less to the contract between men and cats, but just like with people, every now and then you run across one that just doesn't and they can be real bastards - though again, just like with people, sometimes the real bastards are fascinating.
DeleteThe poem was a ton of fun to write, and one of the first times I've consciously tried that kind of imitation. I had a good time with it! I think I might try to write more humor / happy / peaceful stuff for a bit. Srs biznss writing tends to be a little exhausting and I could use a break, though of course, I rarely get to choose what seems to come through the antenna.
I like the lines! Simple but effective, which is almost always better (or at least more to my liking) than complicated and effective! For some reason they remind me of the poem in Twin Peaks - I think at least in part it's the rhythm!
Through the darkness of future's past
The magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds
Fire walk with me.
Have read some interesting theories about fitting together that poem from Twin Peaks with the one from Twin Peaks the Return:
DeleteThis is the water and this is the well
Drink full and descend
The horse is the white of the eye
And dark within
Fitting them together like a jigsaw puzzle, or seeing them as reversals of each other like text in a mirror. The contrast of water and fire, darkness and seeing/white and dark, the mount ridden and the companion walked beside. Reconcile the apparent contradictions, and you'll probably get to the meat of it.
Ohh, wow! I have thought a little about this, but not to that extent. I loved both runs - the gift of the show is the mystery, the fact that we get to wonder and puzzle and hypothesize about what it all means. I watched the original show back when it first aired and got a few friends of mine into it over the years. I am so, so glad it didn't get all wrapped up with a nice bow during the Return and we still get to think about things like this!
DeleteSo fucking cool that you met her - I think she'd appreciate this version, being the "wooer of cats and pigeons" (or at least the guide to The Empty Woman who does) herself. The name list is a nice bit of poetry in its own right, even if unintentional.
ReplyDeleteYeah it was ages ago, but I still recall it pretty vividly! A good memory. Thanks for your kind words re: the list! It was a lot of fun to write, and I could probably have kept going. I might revisit at some point and either do another 100 or try to flesh out the powers granted by each microgod-cat thing!
Delete