Camille-Connoisseur of Culinary Delights

A finicky feline who likes fabulous, fancy flavors? Why, of course!

My beautiful Camille, was such a cat.

Sure... She ate her kibble if she absolutely HAD to. But she was also prone to turning up her nose, which led her personal chef, Moi, to get creative.

Soon, the sound of the pantry door opening, would lead to her furry form darting into the kitchen and rubbing in grateful ecstasy against my legs, for the can of tuna I was opening.

As the cranking sound of the opener tore its way around that little tin circle, she would sit and lift each paw in the air, gently licking and washing her "hands" getting ready for the meal to be served. Her aloof demeanor told of her expectations of 5-star service.

I poured the "Tuna Au Jus" she had ordered off the menu, gently over the kibble, seeping that delicious flavor of the sea into every morsel. The aroma caught her sister Angel's attention, and soon there were two customers, hoping we had not run out of the Thursday night special.

When an opportunity to write a poem about an animal for the Writer's Loft's new anthology AN ASSORTMENT OF ANIMALS presented itself, I knew exactly who I would write about...

My cultured, captivating cat, Camille, connoisseur of culinary delights.

Here is her poem. My ode to my precious writing buddy, Camille, illustrated by the SO very talented, Robert Thibeault (Check out his work here!) FYI- This was the first time, my words had ever been illustrated. What a thrill! Bob brought so much more to my character, as all great illustrators do. Thanks Bob!

So Happy Poetry Friday, everyone! Much thanks to Kathryn Apel (Kat Whiskers) for hosting this week, and for her feline inspiration. Be sure to go to her blog to check out the many other beautiful poems. What a lovely way to end your week!

You can find my poem and many others from many amazing poets, like Josh Funk and Jane Yolen, in this delightful anthology, "An Assortment of Animals: A Children's Poetry Anthology" (link), illustrated by the Caldecott award winning- Brian Lies. (link)

Will Santa Know?

Happy Poetry Friday everyone! Ever since I found this group, I cannot believe how fast Fridays seem to come along each week. I haven't been able to get my act together enough to post new poetry every Friday, but I am VERY thankful for the inspiration I get reading everyone's posts.

Stop by Jone Rush McCuloch's Blog tonight for a warm mug full of poetry, sprinkled with marshmallow words. Thanks for hosting Jone!

Nothing better on a snowy evening!

---

A handful of times, when I was young, we few to Florida for Christmas with my grandparents. I remember being struck by the fact, that there was no snow and I was swimming while my friends were having snowball fights. I felt pulled between the two places I loved. I could almost imagine the cold feel of winter inside my grandfather's air-conditioned car while we drove to look at the lights hanging on the sail boats.

Inspired by this memory, I am sharing "Will Santa Know?" today. Enjoy!

One other note!

This has been an exciting week for me. After a long, empty stretch waiting for results of submissions, I had two every wonderful successes. First- My poem "Hiking to Zealand Falls" placed on the Long List of winners for Renee La Tulippe's Rhyming Poetry Contest.

You can read the poem and take a "sneak a peek"

at an early version written in verse, here :

Then a second poem, "Snowbirds" was accepted to the webzine, Dirigible Balloon.

I was so tickled about this. Visit soon and share the joy of poetry with your kids and grandkids. You can read my poem here.

Merry Christmas to all!

The poems featured in any of my blog posts, are copyrighted to Cathy Stenquist.

Please do not copy, reprint or reproduce without my written permission .

Thank you!

Growing a Poem

As many of you saw on my FB page, I was DELIGHTED to hear that a poem of mine won a place of honor in the Long List (first tier judging) of the Lyrical Language Lab's Rhyming Poetry Contest.

Can you guess the title from this hint?

When you read a poem, it feels like it may have been something that just rolled off the writer's tongue onto the page, intact, full and completely finished.

It's easy... Anyone can do it...right?

Au contraire!

Though I have been writing most of my life, I am now just now working hard at understanding the art... yes, art of writing poetry.

Last fall I took a course from accomplished poet, Renee La Tulippe and her co-teacher, the amazing poet Suzy Levinson at The Lyrical Language Lab. If you have ever thought of writing rhyming or lyrical poetry, this course is a must-do. It gave me an understanding of the basics of poetry meter and how to get it right. I am a newbie, for sure, but reading many children's anthologies and investing in learning from the pros is starting to pay off. Like anything in life, you get what you put into it. I continue to be inspired by friends and poets like: Charles Waters, Irene Latham, Matt Forest Essenwine and Nancy Tupper Ling.

What title do you think is mine? Hmmm....

To be selected from hundreds of entries from amazing, accomplished poets was indeed an honor I will not soon forget.

Did you guess it?

My title was : Hiking to Zealand Falls

Unfortunately, my little poem did not make it into the next cut (the short list), but like the celebrities say for the Oscars... "It was an honor to have been nominated." I really mean it though, it has given me a boost I realize now that I really needed.

BTW - Big congratulations to those who made the short list!

Can't wait to find out who the winners are.

I will enjoy reading and learning from your poetry!

Now that my poem is out of competition... I thought I would share "Hiking to Zealand Falls" with you, and the journey to it's completion.

The theme for this contest was- Winter Wanderings: Nature

I immediately thought of our family's hike to Zealand Falls Hut in the White Mountains a few years ago, one cold, COLD (did I mention C.O.L.D.) February. Our reservation at the hut was a gift from my nature loving son. The poem could only be 16 lines. In order to let the words flow with my first draft, I began with writing a verse poem about my experience.

52 lines!! I needed to revise, trim and kills "my darlings," as they say in the writing world.

I really feel like this poem stands alone well as a verse poem. But for this contest, some revision was in order. I read and reread my text, highlighting the gems, and figured out how I could tell a small part of this story in a multi-sensory way.

After several tries, I whittled it down to this 16-line rhyming poem:

I then sent the poem to my beloved writing critique partners to give me their feedback on the meter and overall sense of the poem. Here you can see my own scanning of stressed and unstressed beats and that of my amazing friend, Tracey. ( I am definitely still learning!)

Meter is not about the number of syllables in a line, but the stressed and unstressed beats,

Having critique partners is such a blessing AND a necessity if you want to get your words to where they need to go. As writers and poets, we are so close to our work and may not see what little tweaks could make it shine.

When ever you see an amazing piece of writing,

remember to thank not only the author, but his/ her critique partners :)

Here is a sampling of the feedback I got on the whole poem.

Now that I had such great feedback, I took what rang true with me [the author always has final say ;)] and felt good enough about my baby to send her off.

Drum roll please....

I am happy to share with you final poem. I hope you enjoy it and thank you so much for your kind words and support. Time to get writing!