Typing long
hours
I relax
my hands
arms dangling
fingers spread
beside
the chair
I feel the cat’s
smooth nose
rubbed
in my palm.
Elgin, Illinois
1972
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I was typing a major paper on the physician/poet William Carlos Williams. (1883-1963) He
noticed and appreciated the details of the immediate world and celebrated them in his poems:
wheelbarrows, broken glass, cold plums, and women, to name a few. My day had been spent
in fierce mental concentration. Our cat, named Matisse, with a gentle nose nudge, called to
my attention the details of my world I had to ignore to get the paper done.