Corsair The Cat Prince Other Poems.

by Michael Pedersen

'Pedersen bends words like no-one else. There's a naughtiness, an innocence and surprising vulnerability in this collection. It's poetry to intoxicate. Just sublime.' Juno Dawson 'Every page of The Cat Prince brought me gladsome joy. Pedersen has the astonishing power of finding the astonishing in every moment that deserves a raised glass' Daljit Nagra'This laser focused collection of poetry by Michael Pedersen will gut you like a fish and smash your heart in. Searingly specific, exquisite and requisite. I relished reading every tiny morsel of it' Shirley Manson'Open-hearted, gut-wrenching and yet elegiac, these poems pack a hefty emotional punch. Michael Pederson's poems display a huge vocabulary for love, love in all its many forms and guises. These poems chart the journey from boyhood to manhood, the highs and the lows, the losses and the gains, always working their way towards an essential, emotional truth' Jackie Kay'If the alphabet is a piano keyboard then Michael Pedersen plays it with the confidence and panache of a jazz improviser who knows that every note can have the potential to change someone's life. Be amazed by this book' Ian McMillan'Michael's poems are so physical you can almost touch the images in them. Fabulously sensual and alive. I adore poetry like this' Stephen FryThe Cat Prince & Other Poems is the third collection from prize-winning poet, and author of Boy Friends, Michael Pedersen. All moggy moxie, Pedersen croons to the beauty and devastation of love, loss, friendship, cats and careless joy. Equal parts tender and trenchant, raw and ribald, plangent and smutty, these poems exhibit an emotionally charged, fantastical playground of language and lore. From the brutalising death of a cherished friend comes a gut-wrenching grief. And so begins a tenacious quest for light, lustre and survival as Pedersen pays tender tribute to a gorgeous, life-altering friendship. In doing so, he harks back to the hilarity of being young, reckless and memories of boys showboating in a fishing tackle shop, games of feline metamorphosis, laments for demolished buildings and a case of constipation of the most pernicious stock.As frisky as it is fierce, The Cat Prince pounces around the poet's emotional and physical landscapes, past and present, unfankling a Scotland full of gothic splendour and nature's majesty.These poems reveal a poet at his bravest and most vulnerable. The Cat Prince & Other Poems purrs with affection, flashes its teeth, then digs in the claws.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2023

Reviews

[Mic. · Rating 5 out of 5]

uff. this one took a lot out of me…
the author’s stylistic choice of relying heavily on the use of enjambments creates a flowing, albeit sometimes disorienting, effect. for some, this might feel like a barrier, as the fragmented lines can obscure narrative understanding. i, too, struggled quite a bit here and there. however, this style enhances the emotional depth and rhythm of the poems, pulling me further into the messy, often chaotic nature of grief.
to me, this is also the strength of the collection. the poems that focus on the grief of losing a close friend stand out, especially to someone who struggles with the somewhat recent losses of loved ones on a daily basis.

favourite quote (taken from “weird things i am jealous of when wee”): i wanted to love him for being.
this line. oh, this line, man. raw and quietly heartbreaking. it captures the feeling i find impossible to put into words: the difficult and beautiful longing and misery to continue loving someone not just for who they were, but for the very fact of their existence. unfulfilled love put into a very simple and yet so disarming sentence.

***5/5 stars ***

[bookclubforme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short but sweet this is such a wholesome and fun collection of poetry, some hilarious, others so beautifully worded. All hail The Cat Prince! 🐈👑

[Sorin Hadârcă · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has rhythm and I guess it's beautiful and playful, but I didn't sink in deep enough. I understood very little, in fact. Shame on me, perhaps?

[mia :•) · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow more poetry i actually enjoy! congrats michael pedersen

[Mads · Rating 5 out of 5]

automatic full marks just for using the word "blootered". but i'd have ranked it the same even if that word was absent; i don't think i've felt any other poetry collection quite so deeply. the speaker feels like a pal. what else can i say?

[silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

needs more cats x

[voodoocactus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can readily say this isn’t exactly my favorite type of poetry as I’m not overly fond of telling a story and words & thoughts and then it–moves and jumps & the next paragraph and. style. At times, I found Pedersen’s linguistic fireworks all over the place which makes the poems hard to follow, but then the next poem would come out of the blue to hit me straight in the feels with force I didn’t see coming. I’m also 99% sure these poems would improve a LOT if Pedersen read them aloud instead of me reading them from the page.

Will this be one of the poetry books I’ll come back to over and over again? No. I’m much more into rupi kaur, j.m. storm, or Kahlil Gibran which probably means I’m just too stupid for Pedersen. But I’m still glad I have it because it’s a gift from a friend. Perhaps one day I can even read it through properly (now I leafed it through because it made me unreasonably annoyed).

[Jonathan Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first time reading Pedersen’s poetry and I adore it. I have never felt so understood by boyhood poetry. The themes of male friendship, boyhood, coming to age, and grief are all masterfully woven together in this truly beautiful collection. There are so many incredible poems in this collection that it is hard to create a shortlist but I shall keep it short by recommending just three of my favourite poems in this collection.

1) Lines on the Melodies in Men
2) 28/05/21 - that’ll be that
2.5) The skittle boys code of conduct
2.75) weird things I am jealous of when wee
2.9) We are other people to other people
3) The Cat Prince

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small poetry collection received from Shakespeare and Company from this Scottish poet. Poems about love, friendship, loss, fear of loss, death… and cats. These poems come in a variety of forms, including short, long, regular stanzas, no discernible structure, and games with the page layout. The words are beautiful, magical, dancing. I’m not sure if I fully understood everything, but I enjoyed a pleasant moment in a poetic land.

https://redheadwithabrain.ch/index.ph...

[Colin Murtagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know what to make of this collection. To be honest, if I could it would be a 3.5 stars, as bits of it I adored. The cat prince itself is a wonderful piece, and it's not alone. There are some beautiful poems I really enjoyed
On the other hand, there is a lot of it I just don't get. It's trying to evoke a feeling, or a memory, but it just never lands for me. Even reading it out loud, feels like it lacks the rhythm I'd expect. It may be that it would sound better read by the poet, or it may just be that it's a style I don't get.
Saying that, I'm glad I tried it

[Eabha Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was just brilliant, michael’s book ‘boy friends’ is my favourite ever and his poetry is as much of a sucker punch emotionally as his prose. i love the themes of childhood and grief, and of male friendship which is so rarely detailed in contemporary poetry. i love that the settings of many of the poems are in cushendall and scotland’s central belt - places i know well but that are definitely under appreciated muses. read this all in one sitting on this balcony. excited to revisit it too.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was at Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and randomly picked this up at the bookstore mainly because I was drawn to the pink cover and promise of cats. And what a gift to be able to read this in a cafe on the left bank.

My favorite poems were the title poem, this is what grief feels like, psalm on descent, and elder wand.

[Abram · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is filled with poems that are quite bad. The only redeeming quality of the book was that it forced me to remember that the fact that something is not immediately accessible does not imply that it should be passed over. Unfortunately, as this collection absolutely should be, my epiphany did not go beyond that point.

[✰matthew✰ · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed this and particularly enjoyed a few individual poems, some of the imagery is wild. it’s really nice to see such imagination, mixed with memories, spilt onto the page.

i did feel this collection as a whole lacked cohesion and flow, i didn’t always manage to figure what the poems were talking about.

[Claire Milne · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite authors and poets and this collection did not disappoint. Was made all the better by hearing some of them read by Michael Pedersen in person at Toppings in St Andrews.

[Jette · Rating 3 out of 5]

not enough cats
the one about isobel was nice tho

[Aaron Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

some wholesome, heartfelt and hilarious poetry, I find myself often going back to this collection and reading my favourites over and over again

[Suzanne Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real fun poetry 🐈👑😻

[Eilidh Fyfe · Rating 2 out of 5]

just didn’t hit?? felt too performed

[lasyuh · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75/5

[Kit Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, the author does not wear his extensive vocabulary lightly.

[Cara Patel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this mostly for the cover, and the fact that it was labeled LGBT. I didn’t find the queerness very strong, if at all. The poems were well-written but often went over my head or were hard to understand. This might work well for someone who enjoys analyzing poetry, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

[Simon Pressinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an imaginative poet, full of playfully inventive language, surrealist imagery and humour. I like how much value Pedersen places on friendship. I also like how he criticises traditional forms of masculinity through many of his own experiences. And also I like the ways in which he navigates loss and grief. Really good collection.

[Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing · Rating 5 out of 5]

what about the dog prince? #alllivesmatter (it was good I liked it a lot)