1
The cat was lying on the ground, watching another cat.
Click to enlarge.
I looked at his legs and a simile occurred to me: "He looks like . . ." So I did some photoshopping in two stages,
and then I had something for the Jahrzeit of Edward Gorey (d. April 15, 2000), painter of cats and the ballet.
2
Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz of Los Angeles's Chai Center has (or had two years ago, when this article was published)
an interesting trait: after meeting an attractive woman, he changes from a human being to a Language poet. Once the woman has passed out of his field of vision, he begins translating his memory of her into words and composing what the article calls "rambling e-mails in large print, heavy with text-message shorthand punctuated with varied text colors, point sizes and fonts."
To one woman, for instance, he sent a poem which included this text.
What were U thinking when U brought a GOY 2 our Seder??? How did U dare 2 do such a reprehensible thing? It must B tht U R quite mentally unbalanced & not taking yr meds. And then U had the Chutzpa 2 try 2 pick up another Jew from our group while U were sitting there W/ a GOY (who was even of a dfrnt RACE ... )?
3
It would be easy for a weak poet to make the flower too into a balletic simile. There once existed a whole manual of procedure for that translation: the Victorian technology called the language of flowers. But to be a strong poet would be to keep the dictionary closed and remain self-imprisoned in the wordless grammar of the plant as such -- self-imprisoned until the completing instant of metamorphosis. And in what language then would the flower deign to speak to us?