Oct 27, 2024
The Poet & The Pussycat | Bagheera the Feline Muse
Guest Post By Eleanor Flowers
There is no better companion for the poet than the cat. And perhaps no greater muse.
As a poetess and chanteuse, I often attempt to capture the grace, style, and comedy of the mighty cat in my songs and poems. There’s something infinitely wild and mysterious about the cat that keeps the creative mind searching.
Eleanor and Bagheera. Photographer, Markus Mjaaland
My little street cat, now queen of my city apartment, is a star. In my new show LOVE STORY, a musical I wrote about love in all its forms, I dedicate a full ten minutes of songs and poems to my love of cats and for my little Bagheera. One of these poems is Cat Shapes, which I am delighted to have worked with Cheshire & Wain to adapt into a poetry film.
Film still from 'Cat Shapes' featuring beautiful Bagheera
I wrote LOVE STORY during the pandemic in my little apartment in Oslo. I remember how cold it was that winter. I had just bought a new writing desk from a local flea market. It has these wooden borders around the edges, so it’s probable the desk was once on a ship and that those little ledges are there to stop things from rolling off in stormy seas! It seemed like a rather apt piece of furniture to see me through the tumultuous years of Covid.
I put the desk by the window under which there is a radiator and inadvertently made the ultimate cat lounging spa – my little street cat splayed out luxuriously on my desk, now warmed by the heat of the radiator. Every so often she hears a noise from the street and sits up to patrol the window, her ears shifting with the city sounds, before sinking back down onto the warm, varnished wood. She wouldn’t roll off that desk in a tsunami. Unless there were treats nearby. My desk is our beautiful pea-green boat.
This scene and my poem Cat Shapes capture how important Bagheera is to my work and life as a poetess. No one else ever gets to see me write but her. I especially love writing songs in her presence. Hers are always the first ears ever to hear my musical creations, and she often blinks in approval at a particularly dreamy melody.
Cats and poets are quite similar. Bagheera likes to hunt by moonlight just as I prefer to write in the evenings. One of my favourite poems about cats is W.B. Yeats “The Cat and The Moon”, which captures the unique relationship cats and poets have to the moon, and the slightly untameable spirit of both poet and cat.
“Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet,
What better than call a dance?”
How gorgeous is that? To conjur the cat and moon, two close kindred spirits, dancing together.
Then he puts the moon right into the black cat’s eyes:
“Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?”
Some interpret this poem as a love poem Yeats wrote for his love Maude Gonne. Others think that the poem captures a more complex understanding of spiritualism and mysticism. I love this poem because it captures something magical about black cats. It is so sad that black cats are so poorly treated because of outdated superstitions. To me, they are the most glorious creatures in the world.
I love to dote on Bagheera, particularly because when she found me, she was a grubby stray. She has always had the heart of a queen, however, and when I discovered Cheshire & Wain’s luxury collars, I knew she had to have one. I had found that there are vast ranges of beautiful products for dogs, but cat lovers, perhaps the most generous and doting of all pet owners, needs were not being met!
Behind the scenes filming 'Cat Shapes' with Bagheera's collection of Cheshire & Wain gifted goodies
It was with joy that I discovered, after sending Sonja from Cheshire & Wain my poem Cat Shapes that she too adored poetry! Thanks to the support of Cheshire & Wain, we’ve been able to bring my poem Cat Shapes to life, and capture on film the love between poet and cat.
Of course, you don’t need to be a poet to love cats. Anyone who has ever given a home to a feline will know the honour of having a cat climb onto your lap, or blinking at you, or wrapping their tail around your ankle.
The film crew had a blast on set, and Bagheera did a great job modelling the golden Caspian collar with the emerald gem. I always joke that I speak “fluent cat” and thus we wanted to capture the language of cats, playing around with me also becoming quite feline as I write poetry with Bagheera on that very same ship desk I wrote LOVE STORY sitting at 4 years ago.
We also wanted to pay tribute to the Victorian-era artist Louis Wain’s psychedelic cat paintings, with make-up artist Aurora creating a gothic make-up look and Kristine styling my fashion look inspired by Wain’s colour palette, using her own designs and vintage items. Director of Photography Julie had the brilliant idea of using a filter to create a slightly psychedelic feel, paying homage to Wain’s later, pioneering work, which looks as if it could have been made in the 1960s during the summer of love.
Eleanor's gothic makeup by Aurora Indianna Hay
If you listen closely you will hear the call and response song I wrote and produced together with Julie in the background, with Julie’s rather lovely whistle. I always whistle Bagheera inside at the end of the day. That whistle means one thing: treats.