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Catzilla! Tanka, Kyoka, and Gogyokha About Cats, edited by M. Kei: A Review by Aurora Antonovic
Catzilla is an enchanting, sometimes heart-rending, at time s rip-roaringly funny collection of five-line
Japanese cat-themed poetry written by forty-five of the world’s best known tanka, kyoka, and gogyoka poets,
and edited by M. Kei.
Tanka, kyoka, and gogyoka are forms of poetry originating from Japan. Their brevity
lends themselves especially well to poignant themes, urging the response from the reader
rather than forcing it. More sensitive topics are touched up with subtle inferences, instead
of over-emphasizing reactions in heavy language and an abundance of words.
Themed anthologies run the risk of reading rather one-dimensionalyl. Themed anthologies
about cats perhaps run that risk even more so. Catzilla avoids that pitfall by using
poems that are extremely well written, covering themes such as death, humour, passages
of life, fear, gardening, and human ineptness! The poems are about cats, but always also about
“something else”. For example:
morning pawprints
left by the white cat
in fallen snow—
one more thing
I'll only glimpse
Miriam Sagan
And
a litter of kittens
one by one
they die—
the single welfare mom
with five kids of her own
Angela Leuck
There are poems about resiliency:
a gray stray who cried
for days before we found him
trapped by a wasp nest
under the back yard driveway
now strides across his yard
Richard Stevenson
and knee-slappers, such as this one from Liam Wilkinson:
a fur-ball in my
mother-in-law’s handbag
I fill the cat’s bowl
with the finest
smoked salmon
Liam Wilkinson
One of the reasons Catzilla is so successful is because it is well edited. M. Kei, no stranger
to putting together high-quality publications, makes no exception with the standard in this anthology.
The poems are of the highest form, and they are presented well. One poem appears per page in most instances,
and never more than two. In some cases, poems are presented in their original foreign language, followed
by translations in English. This wise use of space invites the reader to meditate upon one poem at a
time before going onto the next, a way of reading that is very important to Japanese-form poetry.
Poems don’t hurry too quickly from one topic to the next, but rather flow effortlessly.
While cat lovers might be especially drawn to this book, poetry lovers in general will be, too. Highly recommended.
Catzilla! Tanka, Kyoka, and Gogyokha About Cats
ISBN 978-0-557-53612-2
Perfect bound, cover cover, B&W interior
136 pp
$14.00 US (paperback), $7.50 US (ebook)
Currently available from Lulu.com/Keibooks.
Forthcoming from Amazon.com and other major booksellers
Aurora Antonovic is a Canadian freelance writer, visual artist, and the former co-editor and columnist for the GT Times.
Her poetry has appeared in recent months over 200 times in publications such as Adagio Verse Quarterly, Promise, Blind Man's Rainbow,
The Bohemian Rag, Regal Quill Quarterly, Black Mail Press, Makata, The Entouist, and Poetic Voices. She currently resides in Ontario.
Email: Aurora Antonovic
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