A Review of Cee Williams’ "Poetry for Cats & all the other mortal things I couldn’t keep myself from loving" by Heidi Blakeslee

You know that feeling you get when you’re reading someone’s work and it just transports you to their time and place?  The words are pure and the voice is so strong you get pangs in your stomach.  When it’s so good you recognize parts of the writing as part of your own ephemera?  You just feel it?

Cee Williams’s “Poetry for Cats” is that chapbook.  As a person familiar with his work, this volume stands out for me as one that is special.  Not just because I love cats, though Cee’s warmth when writing and talking about animals can certainly give me bias.  No, not all of the poems are about cats, though animals are always a running theme in his poetry.  There is a richness to the lines as Cee lovingly and vividly describes characters he knows and has known.  

His voice is at once wise and true.  If you are in the mood for some perfectly polished work that will make your soul ache and your heart nod along in agreement, then this work is for you.  Every time I read this chapbook I sigh and think, “Damn, Cee, you did it again!”  

Psalm 68 Verse 9:

"Rain in abundance thou didst shed abroad; thou didst restore thy heritage as it languished."

As the rain falls

through the flowering pear

a whispered orison to veiled Orishas

lingers long enough to hold in fingers

crossed in hopeful supplication

quiet prayers imprisoned in despair

This book was published by Poet's Hall and is available from poet2thebone@gmail.com

Cee Williams is the founder of Poet’s Hall, the International Fellowship of Poets and Spoken Word Artists, in Erie, Pa.  He was also the Poet Laureate of Erie County from 2014-2016.  He is a poet, playwright, and producer with many published titles under his belt.