Texas Cat Poet, Syl E. Vester - 1998

Syl E. Vester is a black-and-white cat of immense imagination. I knew him for a short time while staying in San Marcos, Texas. Syl E. would sometimes come in out of the moonlight with his eyes big and round, his tail standing straight up, and his fur all ruffled - the signs of a powerful poetic encounter with the universe. Syl E. would telepath the poems to me, and I would say them in English while Syl E.'s human companion, Sherry, would write them down for posterity.

Here, then, posterity, are the poems of Syl E. Vester, now residing in San Antonio, Texas.

FOUR POEMS

I AM

I'm ready to be lifted from the casket of embodiment.
I sink my teeth and claws into the vision of a bird
and imediately become what I have eaten.
My whole heart is covered with feathers.
In my center the songs of all the birds that ever were
vibrate the core of the Universe.
I am a cat who knows no boundaries.
I pretend.


THE FIRE OF LIFE

When green things dance in the wind, my fur is ruffled
and smells and scents flow in through my nostrils.
I pounce and slink.
I am the Wildness which dances the Tree Dance.
Perhaps a squirrel will run past me.
Perhaps my waiting will result in food.
A tree invites me.
"Scratch my bark," it says. "Rake me, climb me,
peer from my limb with glittering green eyes."
Waiting for a bird gift from the Gods,
I know this one thing:
To be magnificence itself is to be a cat.


FULL MOON

Out from under the Moon I run, tail straight up for little wiggling spirit things
to climb.
My claws shine like sharpened pearls.
I savor the magic, the airiness.
I'm absolutely terrified and delighted.
There is a great ball shining messages for the world
and I have caught its words in my heart.


DEATH IS LIKE THAT

My mind is at a loss.
Maybe I lost it, maybe I gave it away.
So instead my head is filled with something -
it is a waiting.
The right picture will come soon,
to fill my empty head.
In that moment between the emptiness and the fullness,
I take a bath.
Only the cats know the depths of creativity one enters
in the bath.
Death is like that.