Poem of the week

NOW working on a book of football poems (see www.footballpoets.org/) Eddie Gibbons, a playful, candid and poignant writer, is here in typically unsentimental mode, exploring the nature of poetry. This is from his 2003 collection The Republic of Ted (Thirsty Books, £6.99). He is at Aberdeen's Word festival on Sunday 14 May, 4pm.

The cat flap is closed.

Is the cat inside or outside?

The pessimist's answer:

The cat is inside, curled up on the rug.

The optimist's answer:

The cat is outside under a truck.

Schrödinger's answer:

The cat is both inside and outside

at the same time.

The poet's answer:

Who cares if

the cat is sat on the mat

or the cat is splat and flat?

The world is all imagining:

the rhyme's the thing.

You can borrow The Republic of Ted from the Scottish Poetry Library, which also lends by post. Phone: [phone] E-mail [e-mail] See www.spl.org.uk