“Proposition and experiment”

Anna Lena Phillips writes:

I. Many people will not, of their own accord, look at a poem.

II. Millions of people will, of their own accord, spend lots and lots of time looking at photographs of cats.

III. Therefore, earlier this year, I concluded that the best strategy for increasing the number of viewers for poems would be to print them on top of photographs of cats.

IV. I happen to like looking at both poems and cats.

V. So this is, for me, a win-win situation.

VI. Fortunately, my own cat is a patient model, and (if I am to be believed) quite photogenic.

VII. The aforementioned cat is Tisko Tansi, small hero.

VII. Thus I present to you (albeit in digital rather than physical form) an Endearments broadside, featuring a poem that originally appeared in BlazeVOX spring 2011.

VIII. If you want to share a copy of this image, please ask first. If you want a real copy, you can ask about that too.

She follows up with an image of a cat, on which is superimposed a short anagrammatic poem. In deference to item VIII above, I will not reproduce the image; it is here.