The Duties of a Cat
Award-winning Sydney publisher Pitt Street Poetry commissioned seven glorious drawings from Michael Robson to illustrate my suite of twelve poems about cats (and the human condition, of course, but mostly cats): The Duties of a Cat. It was launched in late December 2013. If you'd like, you can buy a copy directly from Pitt Street Poetry HERE.
Award-winning poet and author Judy Johnson says, "This is a lovely, complex and thought provoking little poetry book about the inner and outer lives of cats. I was struck by the nuance and complexity the author managed to bring to the poems–how they opened up from their particular descriptions of animal behaviour into the larger emotional world we all share. There is wonderful sound play in the poems which make them a joy to the inner ear as well as the eye. ... High quality cream paper and exquisite drawings by Michael Robson seem to further deepen and illuminate the text. Highly Recommended."
Jonathan Shaw says, "Jenny Blackford turns a loving, amused, admiring and sometimes unsettled eye on the creature from another species that shares her home... Like cats themselves, the poems can be charming and dangerous in the same breath."
It is Highly Recommended in Reading Time: "This is a small but utterly charming publication of beautifully crafted poems about cats... This pocket-sized publication is a treasure."
Rhyllis Bignell on ReadPlus writes, "Jenny Blackford's poems capture the quintessential feline nature, the sensory overload, the joy of ownership that is a cat's life. She has an almost secret understanding, eloquently portrayed through her carefully chosen stanzas. In The duties of a cat Jenny draws the audience in, as they identify with the contrary nature of the beast."
Sean Wright (aka Sean the Bookonaut) says, "The reader is treated to beautifully articulated observational poetry as in "Soft Silk Sack" and "Learning how to be a Cat", to humour that will have even dog lovers generating a grin with "The Duties of a Cat", to the dark in "Something in the Corner" which displays Blackford’s penchant for the weird, and to the science fictional in "Their Quantum Toy".
Di Bates says, "Blackford, like all good poets, has an original perspective and conveys this with rich, imaginative language, using words such as ‘winterplump’ and ‘sweet foolish lump of fur’ to describe a cat... it is clear that the poet has captured the essence of cat and done so in language that is sharply realised and often memorable."
Nebula-winner Eileen Gunn says, "What a lovely chapbook! Enchanting drawings and enchanting poems. A must-have book for people who must have cats!"
Rhysling-winner Mary Soon Lee says, "This small and lovely book contains a dozen beautifully-observed cat poems by Jenny Blackford, perfectly accompanied by Michael Robson's illustrations. The poems capture the essence of the house cat, living alongside us, but never entirely tamed...I love these poems and particularly recommend them to any cat sympathizer. I read them on the sofa, with both my cats draped on top of me."
Award-winning Sydney publisher Pitt Street Poetry commissioned seven glorious drawings from Michael Robson to illustrate my suite of twelve poems about cats (and the human condition, of course, but mostly cats): The Duties of a Cat. It was launched in late December 2013. If you'd like, you can buy a copy directly from Pitt Street Poetry HERE.
Award-winning poet and author Judy Johnson says, "This is a lovely, complex and thought provoking little poetry book about the inner and outer lives of cats. I was struck by the nuance and complexity the author managed to bring to the poems–how they opened up from their particular descriptions of animal behaviour into the larger emotional world we all share. There is wonderful sound play in the poems which make them a joy to the inner ear as well as the eye. ... High quality cream paper and exquisite drawings by Michael Robson seem to further deepen and illuminate the text. Highly Recommended."
Jonathan Shaw says, "Jenny Blackford turns a loving, amused, admiring and sometimes unsettled eye on the creature from another species that shares her home... Like cats themselves, the poems can be charming and dangerous in the same breath."
It is Highly Recommended in Reading Time: "This is a small but utterly charming publication of beautifully crafted poems about cats... This pocket-sized publication is a treasure."
Rhyllis Bignell on ReadPlus writes, "Jenny Blackford's poems capture the quintessential feline nature, the sensory overload, the joy of ownership that is a cat's life. She has an almost secret understanding, eloquently portrayed through her carefully chosen stanzas. In The duties of a cat Jenny draws the audience in, as they identify with the contrary nature of the beast."
Sean Wright (aka Sean the Bookonaut) says, "The reader is treated to beautifully articulated observational poetry as in "Soft Silk Sack" and "Learning how to be a Cat", to humour that will have even dog lovers generating a grin with "The Duties of a Cat", to the dark in "Something in the Corner" which displays Blackford’s penchant for the weird, and to the science fictional in "Their Quantum Toy".
Di Bates says, "Blackford, like all good poets, has an original perspective and conveys this with rich, imaginative language, using words such as ‘winterplump’ and ‘sweet foolish lump of fur’ to describe a cat... it is clear that the poet has captured the essence of cat and done so in language that is sharply realised and often memorable."
Nebula-winner Eileen Gunn says, "What a lovely chapbook! Enchanting drawings and enchanting poems. A must-have book for people who must have cats!"
Rhysling-winner Mary Soon Lee says, "This small and lovely book contains a dozen beautifully-observed cat poems by Jenny Blackford, perfectly accompanied by Michael Robson's illustrations. The poems capture the essence of the house cat, living alongside us, but never entirely tamed...I love these poems and particularly recommend them to any cat sympathizer. I read them on the sofa, with both my cats draped on top of me."