WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

Critters

July 4, 2026

Basho

This is Basho, Bonbon’s brother. Where Bonbon is a monster cat, Basho is the opposite. Basho is a cat one expects. He is sleek, graceful, beautiful. A classic tuxedo cat, with a small white mustache. He is, relative to his brother, a gentle being. He tends to warn before leaping upon one. He speaks lyrically,… Continue reading

Cats, Caturday, Critters

cat, Caturday, tuxedo cat
June 27, 2026

Bonbon

He is not beautiful. Aren’t all cats beautiful? Not this one. He has a funny face. Big flat nose. Eyes that always seem to need cleaning. Giant paws with rarely retracted claws. He has a lot to say. Continue reading

Caturday, Critters

cat, Caturday
June 13, 2026

Caturday – Beau

Continue reading

Caturday, Critters, Digital Collage

cat, Caturday, digital collage
July 25, 2025

Bosho & Bonbon

poems, chocolate, kittens / consolation / in trying times / Continue reading

Critters

cat, haiku, kittens, smallpoem
September 16, 2016

Cricket

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js Most dogs, when they want a belly-rub, roll on their backs. Cricket plants his face in my lap & stands on his head. #dog #photo #pomeranian Continue reading

Critters

Ancestral (Artificial )Intelligence

I do not use AI to write. For me, writing is how I think, and I prefer to do it myself. If/when I post anything here that I suspect or know to be AI generated, I will tell you.

I have changed this from Artificial to Ancestral, after Abi Awomosu @ Substack. This medium was made with human history, human thought. All of it, bright and dark. It is ancestral.

Poems

Please do not assume that I am the speaker/ subject of my poems.

In these times of creative nonfiction and fictionalized memoirs, I think of the poem itself as true fiction: it is most likely not factual, but it must be true.

It is likely to be — it is best if it is — a truth I did not know before I wrote, and may not understand even then.

A poem is my way of discovering (dis-covering) what I feel; sometimes, what I think — but it is not necessarily biographical.

Critters

Basho

Bonbon

Caturday – Beau

Bosho & Bonbon

Cricket