When I choose a photo to feature as a poem prompt, I choose what pleases me. Sometimes it’s a picture I’ve taken during the week, but this week it’s a photo that caught my eye on an Instagram post from Jone MacCulloch. I asked her if I could use it this week, and she sent me the photo and the collage she had made with it.
Jone wrote, “The piece you like is a mixed media piece. I have been playing with landscape scene. This was a cat in Kilcullin, Ireland, 2022. This has some pieces of my grandmother’s journal(copied). It’s part of a new exhibit in April.” Congratulations to Jone on her upcoming exhibit.
I love how blogging has opened windows and doors for me to creative people. Jone and I have not met in person, but we’ve been on multiple Zoom meetings together. We’ve had conversations through blogging and email. She featured this same photo on her blog for “Wordless Wednesday.” But I think the photo invites words.
Please join me in the comments by writing a small poem today inspired by Jone’s photo or art collage. Encourage other writers with comments.
“A cat’s eyes are windows enabling us to see into another world.” Irish proverb
Behind a lace curtain
on a warm windowsill,
a nonchalant cat
holds a light
until her people
come home.
Reflections on the Teche 
look closely
art imitates life
still cat waits
There’s my OLW still. Can be read two ways. Still cat or still waits. I like that.
I must say, I was a little proud of that word choice! And your OLW for bonus points!!!
Love “art imitates life.” Jone is a master!
Yes to how you bridged both photo and art!
Yes, like Margaret, I appreciate the ambiguity of the word “still” in the last line. The message is great. Still we wait.
We needed to look closely to find our perspective/connections to write about the photo.
Across the world
A cat sits in the window
Here in my house
Two cats sit in the window
Faithful pets
Watching and waiting
We used some of the same words, Diane! Like minds.
Love the connection between cats across the world!
Cats in windows is a universal image. Thanks for writing and posting.
Diane, I like the connection between the cats across the world. All “watching and waiting” Lovely.
You used my OLW (light) like Mary Lee used yours! Thank you.
cat surveys the land
waiting, watching, wondering
content
Survey captures the cat–love the 3 w words, too.
Those nice soft w words make me feel content.
Your poem, Rose, makes me look back and see the eyes of the cat–so deliberate, so busy, yet content. You really captured the cat in your poem, I believe.
Point-of-View
The splendor of a
cat framed by a lace-trimmed window–
the splendor of a
fledgling struggling near the nest.
Is the cat watching the fledgling? I have both birds and cats. Sometimes we get the shocking gift of a dead bird. I love how you used the word splendor. Splendid.
Yes! You made me think for a minute, and then…YES! This is perfection!
Perfect title for your poem!
Buffy, great title. Both are splendors. I like “lace-trimmed window” as a description.
homed kitty
kitty sits inside her
comfy home
peering through
a windowpane
fading words tell
a different cattail: over
200,000 feral felines
roam the emerald isle
Glenda Funk
3-26-25
ISPCA stat
Oh, wow. That makes the fact that this kitty has a home all the more important and special. I like your use of “fading words” on the collage version. Lovely!
[…] wrote this poem in response to Margaret Simon’s “This Photo Wants to Be a Poem” on her blog Reflections on the Teche. She featured a photo by Jone McCulloch of a cat in a […]
I love the cat’s mission in your poem, Margaret. I’m off to an appointment, so I just drafted a quick trinet. Not even sure what it’s about yet.
Framed by
Grandmother’s words,
the attentive cat wraps its heart
around the Emerald Isle’s belonging, longing
for hope
in time
at home
Love “framed by grandmother’s words” and how you were able to include the reference to Ireland.
You draft well on the fly. I love how you included the journal writing as well as Ireland and longing. I feel the longing in the collage art.
love this nonchalant cat and the way the picture leaves us to wonder what the cat’s world is like behind the curtain.