Flying Cats
Poems for some kind of fun by Alison Prince
Review by Sally Campbell
This is a delightful and funny collection of 47 poems, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, as well as making you think about the world in which we live. The book made its first appearance in Corrie Hall to an enthusiastic audience with readings by Stuart Gough and Gillian Lockhart, and Alison herself.
At a time when many of us are becoming cynical of the nation’s systems, be that banking, multinationals or politics, poetry like this, often satirical, makes us laugh and lightens the sense of gloom at this time of incessant negative prediction. But there are light and amusing descriptions of everyday events too, which makes this a collection for many occasions and moods.
Too few of us attempt to write poetry – yet in this compendium the poems express so many of the feelings we all have with a lightness and sense of the ridiculous. You feel included in the frolics. Many of poems are prize-winners, collected here for the first time in Flying Cat. The perfect book for a present or just for a private or family laugh.
All proceeds will be used to help fund the Voice for Arran monthly online magazine, which many of us truly appreciate. The Flying Cat on the cover is a sculpture by Zoe Tomalin, floating in a zany design by Margo Wheeler.
ISBN: 978-0-9564474-2-5 Published by Voice for Arran Online
A bargain at £7.50 obtainable from Whiting Bay Post Office, Book and Card Shop in Brodick. You can buy it from online Voice that your are reading now, or just click on the direct link to the book producers on http://www.lulu.com/shop/alison-prince/flying-cat/paperback/product-20749928.html
Here’s a sample poem:
Rats
You want to be a fat cat, want to do the deals?
Fix the odds, pull the birds, eat expensive meals
that someone else has paid for? Then listen here, my son,
you’ll need to do some studying and find out how it’s done.
Forget the university, you’ll get no help from that –
you want the proper low-down? Then you’ve got to ask a rat.
Your rat has got the attitude. He understands the skill,
lines the job up nice and quiet, moves in for the kill.
He’s good at business, naturally. His sharp-nailed little paws
are into every document, deleting any clause
that doesn’t suit his purposes. He’s got a lot of friends
and uses them with ruthless charm to further his own ends.
He has it off with all their wives, denies it with a smile.
Accused, he sues – and blow me down, he’s made another pile.
And should we reap the whirlwind, boy, there’s no need to despair.
Amid the rubble and the filth, the rat will still be there.
