Reading poems in the dVerse Poets Pub community has made me laugh, cry, reflect, ponder, and sometimes, jealous. “I wish I could write like that!”, I often lament when I read a stellar poem by another poet. Occasionally, I’ll be so captivated that I read a poem more than once. On rare occasions, I’ll read a poem aloud the second time. Poems come alive when they’re read aloud, like a letter taken out of its envelope, a song performed live, a flower blossoming in spring.
Yesterday’s prompt was Open Link Night, and participants could submit a poem based on an optional prompt, or any poem of their choice. I submitted a poem I wrote during COVID about bees and butterflies.
It’s a delight to have your own poem read by other poets; the comments are supportive, intelligent and educational.
It’s also a delight to read the poems that are submitted by others. That, finally, is the true subject of this post—one of the poems from yesterday’s prompt. It involved writing an ekphrastic poem based on Gertrude Abercrombie’s painting Where or When. Note the figure of the girl and the string she’s holding, connected on one end to a cat, and on the other, to a witch’s hat.
Judy Dykstra-Brown wrote a wonderful poem called String Theory in response to that prompt. It’s whimsical, cheeky, slightly naughty, has the feel of an old-style fairy tale where there are true villains (shades of the Brothers’ Grimm’s Snow White), and features a cat (shades of T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats). Check it out below.
String Theory
(copyright Judy Dykstra-Brown)
This string you see between the cat
and my stepmother’s witch’s hat
was strung by me to work a spell
to send them both straight back to Hell.
As you can see, the witch has vanished
so more than half the threat is banished.
I think, perhaps, without her
the cat will just curl up and purr.
But ’til I know that this is true,
I’ll wait until it gives a clue
the reason it is naughty’s that
it is, after all, a cat!!
I read the poem once, then read it aloud, then laughed out loud, then read it aloud again, and commented to Judy on her post about my delight, chuckles and spontaneous recitation. She responded that she’d love to hear me read it, and I said: “challenge accepted!”
So here’s my amateur recording of Judy’s wonderful poem using the iPhone voice memos app. Click the play button on the far left.
That’s our cat Fiona, one who is happy to “just curl up and purr”.
If you enjoyed the poem, I hope you’ll go visit Judy’s post and tell her yourself.
© 2025, Glover Gardens (with the exception of the Judy Dykstra-Brown poem, republished with permission from the author)
Well done! Honored to have you recite my poem. That said, your cat looks exactly like my cat Kukla!!!
It was a true delight to recite! In addition to posting the recording, have read it aloud to several family members and every time, it was a hit! There was chuckling and praise for the poem.
How sweet of you to reblog and record your reading of the poem. I just “found” it a second time and enjoyed your reading of it just as much. Going to put a link to my original posting..
A fun poem and I think your recital really does it justice!
😎 Thank you! Judy created a whimsical masterpiece.