Cat of the house, lithe
and vocal, purring in my
lap from the depths we
share. Let there be peace
between us. You come with the
space I inhabit,
in but not of it.
Not Rilke’s negative space.
Between your soft black
ears, between your eyes—-
lidded yellow half-moons—-there’s
the flesh of given
being. Dear Presence,
when you feel like it, just do
leap into my lap.
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Author: Tom D'Evelyn
Tom D'Evelyn is a private editor and writing tutor in Cranston RI and, thanks to the web, across the US and in the UK. He can be reached at tom.develyn@comcast.net. D'Evelyn has a PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. Before retiring he held positions at The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard University Press, Boston University and Brown University. He ran a literary agency for ten years, publishing books by Leonard Nathan and Arthur Quinn, among others. Before moving to Portland OR he was managing editor at Single Island Press, Portsmouth NH. He blogs at http://tdevelyn.com and other sites.
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Metaxyturn Diaries 
Beautiful poem. Love it. One typo, third stanza, “if.”
On Thursday, December 27, 2018, Metaxyturn Diaries wrote:
> Tom D’Evelyn posted: “Cat of the house, lithe and vocal, purring in my lap > from the depths we share. Let there be peace between us. You come with the > space I inhabit, in but not if it. Not Rilke’s negative space. Between your > soft black ears, between your eyes—- lidded yel” >
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I’ve not met this cat before in your poems Tom, and in these lines he or she makes a most corporeal entry, a real emanation of a living presence. That last line is a heartfelt consummation. We could happily hear more of Cat. (Do check third stanza, line one though)
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