By curious coincidence, "pagh" is exactly the noise I made upon reading her poem.

Troll.

While I sympathize with your point about the poem, I think your, "no sane person" likes cats remark disappointing. I guess all my heros have some flaw or another.

I'm sure once people realize their tax dollars paid for a dirty poem to be displayed on public transportation, your cause will be joined by many good upstanding Christian citizens who are fed up with these day-in/day-out assaults on decency and propriety. Maybe working together you can get the program's funding cut.

sorry, that should read: I FIND your, "no sane person" likes cats remark disappointing...

one more thing: I do love the word "asterisk" as a euphemism for the anus. I think it should definitely catch on. I also like, "balloon knot".

**************** :)

Well, I think it's hilarious, and not because I'm apparently insane for liking cats.

I'm afraid it gets worse--a quick google search reveals her to be a lit professor at WWU (???!!!)

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~pagh/instructor.htm

There was a discussion of this very poem in this very context in the Slog Comments this past summer, led by someone named "Jerfu" and followed on by "TM".
http://www.thestranger.com/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=9149

able-bodied

but late 4 work

express bus

cripples

my commute

I thought this whole thing had been discussed before--thanks for the reminder, Fnarf.

I guess Dan missed the bus again. Har har har...

That is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. It's a way better poem than most of the crap you read on the buses! I don't think cats' asses are that cute, but this poem rocks. It double rocks for being on public transportation.

One of my least favorite things about cats is when they climb in your lap (invited or not), they immediately lift up their tails, swing their asses around and stick that "asterisk" right in your face before settling in. What's the deal with that?

Then you get the drool and the kneading with the sharp claws...gah! Who needs it?

For people who hate, or are ambivalent about, cats, that poem is truly disgusting, reminding us of all the horrible cat asses with which we have been unwillingly acquainted.

Dammit Savage! I was laughing at the poem, the scene, and your predicament until you mentioned... Dammit, I dont remember ever ever thinking about my mother's asshole before. Why did you do this?

I find it humorously subversive that this poem appeared on a city bus. God, Dan - when did you become such a stick-in-the-mud?

And need I remind everyone of Kurt Vonnegut's depiction of an asshole from Breakfast of Champions?

Argh! Furthermore, this Pagh person is really out there. I just realized what that "little Greek star" bit is all about. I not only have no memory of ever thinking about my mother's asshole, I also have never looked at a cat's butt and thought about anal sex!

P.S. I like cats very much.

Matthew,

I think this is pretty common in mammalian species, as an acknowledgement of status (i.e. I recognize your superiority by adopting an inferior/vulnerable physical stance).

Someone call KOMO-4 TV Tips.

Cats have anal scent glands. Thus, they get to know to each other by sniffing each other's asses. When a cat sticks its ass in your face, it's just saying hello.

re: keshmeshi's remark...we should all be more like kitties
************** :) hello!

I've been known to stick my ass in people's faces from across the room, but then I had Indian buffet for lunch.

The 2002-03 stock of poems was so much better than the current crap. Here's the link:

http://transit.metrokc.gov/prog/poetry/2002/poetry02.html

I especially loved "Jonas's Car," "Human," and "to icarus."

Twinkle, Twinkle's little * ('riks)
A constellation born for licks
Oh pink and puckered winking hole
The hairless door to Kitty's Soul

Exit Only

Comte & Keshmeshi:

Thank you for the explanations, but I must say I've known plenty of lap dogs as well and I don't recall one ever shoving an asterisk in my face. But honestly, my list of issues with felines goes well beyond the cat butt thing so it's possible my memory is a bit selective.

I've always taken an ass to the face as a rather rude gesture (except in the context of consensual oral sex, of course). Funny how one species' "acknowledgement of status" is another's insult. What a crazy fuckin' world we live in!

It's only fitting. Most American poetry has sucked ass for decades.

Reading Dan Savage in the morning can be pretty unpleasant. I'm glad to hear what comes around goes around.

"I don’t like cats—no sane person does"

Mwhahahaha. I don't know if I'd go that far, but people who like cats, and don't just like all animals in general ... yeah, they're insane. Avoid the dog-hating owner of multiple cats like the plague, for instance.

Egad. And I thought the "observations of other metro passengers" poems were insufferable. The only thing worse than poetry in general is Poetry on Buses.

I adore my cats - but I'm crazy. So what? Since when does Dan Savage pass judgement on sanity (or taste). The guys licks doorknobs, for christ's sake!

Ha ha ha, Katy, your poem made me think of this image (safe for work):

http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/7082/catbt3.jpg

Hm. For every piece of art that offends you so much you want it removed, maybe you have to extend the same "removal license" to someone else who has different tastes. Sounds like a recipe for no publicly accessible art at all, once each of us has used our own "I'm offended" hook.

Have to say, found the poem rather clever, myself.

Personally, I'm not offended by the existence of cat anuses (or being reminded of the existence of same), but what comes out of them is another matter entirely.

"one more thing: I do love the word "asterisk" as a euphemism for the anus. I think it should definitely catch on."

ummmm catch on?

anyone read Vonnegut? it's been done dude

What're you talking about, Savage? That poem is the cat's ass! (see how I did that? wocka wocka wocka)

The fact that it's on the fucking bus means that the idiot who is in charge of selecting those poems is either being subversive or is just dumb.

since dan does not show his - the cat's will have to do

is it pink or brownie?

wonder how dan reacts when he watches, with obvious fascination, a cow take a shit

It's all in Mudede's new movie.

I loved that poem and I love cats. :-)

Hey, Jim, you don't have to read me in the AM or PM. I'm here on the blog, and in the paper. I'm easy to avoid. Don't pick up the Stranger, or go on our website. That poem on the bus? Who can avoid it?

Cat ass is unavoidable. The poem merely shows us life, in all its pink, winking, shit-encrusted splendor.

I think a lot more about santorum these days than I once did. That is to say, I used to think of it not at all. I think someone brought it up and publicized it, though. You can't put that frothy genie back in the bottle.

I see dog's anuses all over the place walking around on leashes. Many breeds are apparantly designed to permanently moon the world.

Well, honestly, I must be horrendously naive. I thought the asterisk was either a furball or a pile of shed fur.

But now that I've read all these replies, it is unabashedly clear.

I totally preferred my initial naive illusion.

Dear Dan and bus-poetry hecklers/lovers,
Why end the butt-load of fun ***here?***
Why not get your luffly arsies down to the Seattle Pub Library this Sunday for more bus poetry--the event is a reading of poems from the new anthology "Poetry On Wheels" (Floating Bridge Press), a collections of poems that have turned up on buses, not all of them about little Greek stars.
Dan, if the writer of "*" doesn't show, why don't you get up and read the poem to the audience? We'll make it our aim to show you that our city buses wore some really kick-ass poems over the years.

The skinny:
POETRY ON WHEELS Floating Bridge Press with support from 4Culture and Washington Center for the Book will host a reading to celebrate "Poetry on Wheels: an Anthology of King County's Poetry on Buses Program" 2pm Sunday, Dec. 10 at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Microsoft Auditorium, Level 1.

XO*
Tatyana Mishel, Editor, Floating Bridge Press

Dear Dan and bus-poetry hecklers/lovers,
Why end the butt-load of fun ***here?***
Why not get your luffly arsies down to the Seattle Pub Library this Sunday for more bus poetry--the event is a reading of poems from the new anthology "Poetry On Wheels" (Floating Bridge Press), a collections of poems that have turned up on buses, not all of them about little Greek stars.
Dan, if the writer of "*" doesn't show, why don't you get up and read the poem to the audience? We'll make it our aim to show you that our city buses wore some really kick-ass poems over the years.

The skinny:
POETRY ON WHEELS Floating Bridge Press with support from 4Culture and Washington Center for the Book will host a reading to celebrate "Poetry on Wheels: an Anthology of King County's Poetry on Buses Program" 2pm Sunday, Dec. 10 at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Microsoft Auditorium, Level 1.

XO*
Tatyana Mishel, Editor, Floating Bridge Press

Thanks

Thanks

Thanks

jewish gifts, hamsa, book of psalms what do you do with this. i was looking for some gifts and found those
jewwish gifts.

Nancy Pagh's poetry is stark and dark and sweet and fun -- luscious and honest as a chocolate bar and just as good for brain chemistry. Her newest book, NO SWEETER FAT, just won the very prestigious Autumn House Poetry Prize for 2006. Walt Whitman is a big influence on her work. The title comes from his "Song of Myself." Check it out and see for yourself why her words count, and ring sweet and clear as an alto above the chorus in one of Parry's "Songs of Farewell." She, like he, knows that "nothing is secure."