A Tiger Adrift, a reading

Turn on your speakers the audio is in the author note.

A Tiger Adrift

A Tiger Adrift is published in Strays and available at the link below or through your local bookstores and libraries.

Strays is a collection of two extended narratives and more than forty love-themed poems, exploring the meaning of romantic love while we have it and attempting to find the healing after its loss. Found within these pages is the short story Gutter Dog, the novelette Ginni, and the poems False Skin, the Boy Who Wore Clothes, and the Black-Wit Reveller.

Author's Note

Reviews

[annie lee]

I really liked this. I think your use of typeface and point changes was integrated seamlessly and intensified the tension. This made me think of "The Life of Pi" and the helplessness the tiger sometimes suffered. I like the cadence of this; it seems to roll like the waves, billow up and down like the swells of the ocean. It does not appear there will be a happy ending for the kitten/tiger. Is that your intention? Or is this a metaphor? Like a fish out of water? Like anyone thrown into a completely alien environment and madly trying to survive? So the happy ending is not a duty of the poem, but the duty of he who struggles. Am I close?

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you, Minichinz, as always your reviews are spot on. Really, I look forward to them.

read moreThank you, Minichinz, as always your reviews are spot on. Really, I look forward to them.

The whole Life of Pi things is an unavoidable comparison, but not a Tiger Adrift's inspiration. Its inspiration comes from someone who is far more dear to me, dear enough to inspire my poetry. lol. I'm not sure which of us is the tiger.

Will our dear kitten have a happy ending? Who knows? But swim she/he must.

[Pryde Foltz]

Perhaps those icy shores will thaw.

[Robbie~xoxo~]

Oh I love this!... it shows her relentless pursuit for survival... no matter the odds, she will make it!!

Awesome write, Pryde!...very inspiring. :)

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you, Robbie. Meow to you.

[Kristin Lee]

I'm reminded of the old adage "sink or swim" it applies even to the King of the Jungle. Sometimes we have to put on foot in front of the other and keep going. I like your metaphor of the lion/kitten. We may feel ferocious yet tender at the same time. It's that whole concept of being angry but never hurting a flea. Great words at use here could be used for a fantastic children story :)

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you, Kristen.

[Leandro Mendez]

this is so well written!! enjoyed :)

[Pryde Foltz]

Thanks so much, Leandro.

[Anand Sehgal]

"so icy for you, and so all that's left to do is swim little kitten, swim"

"Meow until you can roar again, and swim little kitten, swim."

Loved this, Pryde :)

[Pryde Foltz]

Thanks Anand, and stops for dropping in.

[Anand Sehgal]

Why two M's are in Capital, Pryde ?

[Pryde Foltz]

Oh Anand,

Observant. But that is for me and only one other person to know. The poem's inspiration.;)

[Anand Sehgal]

;-) code language creativity :D ha ha

[Pryde Foltz]

Afraid not, just some silly sentimentality.

[ANTO]

I actually thought that it was a reference to MGM - and the cat that is used instead of the lion sometimes - but then i realised there's two G's - doh !

[Simon Welsh]

Oh, I love this! The imagery is beautiful.

Also, cute voice in that video!

[Ellie EM]

I really love cats so the line "swim like kitten, swim" I found it sooo cute! ^^

[Pryde Foltz]

Cute, yes, and perhaps a little ironic, because this kitten is a tiger. Thanks for the review, Ellie.

[Ellie EM]

Oh okay no prob! ^^

[dw817]

⊰ℛℛ⊱
"Swim little kitten, swim." There is quite a bit that is interesting here. First off, cats hate water, but the fact this kitten is swimming shows two things, the Mother is not there, and she is fighting for her life.

I could definitely see a small forlorn little kitten hanging onto a piece of driftwood and kicking with it's back legs down an unforgiving river. Very nicely worded and imagined, if a little sad and depressing, anyone would want to jump in and rescue her ... :)

[Pryde Foltz]

Oh, DW if only. The problem: not everyone has it in them to rescue a tiger. Thanks you, for you lovely and thoughtful review.

[dw817]

Tiger ... ? Oh, the title, I totally missed that. If it is a tiger versus a shark, I would feel badly for the shark. Tigers are fearsome fighters, cunning, powerful, lean, they are near the top of the food chain. Yet in the water - it is likely the shark would have an upper hand for the environment, so yes, swim Tiger - swim. :)

[Pryde Foltz]

:)..........

[Clockwork]

The moment when Pi is in the lifeboat and he rescues the Richard Parker is really compelling. I think you brought that feeling of that to us in another way with those first ten lines or so in this poem. I like your second to last line in this a lot. It really speaks of fining identity and a true voice in a very difficult situation. Thank you for sharing this one with me.

[Pryde Foltz]

Thanks Clockwork. Yes, the themes are very similar to Martel, but Richard Parker and Pi are one. My poor little tiger has no pi. Not yet...

[Pete Langley]

This piece leaves my cat stuff in the shade, Pryde. The whole wonderful metaphor has an encompassing parallel both in life and, I suspect more pertinently for you, in creativity. You describe the struggles, threats, temporary havens, and the overall necessity of persistence. This, for me, is a major poem. P.

[Pryde Foltz]

Wow, Pete. Tell me what you really think ... over and over again. lol. I am humbled by your praise. The piece was a gift from the ether shall we say and an offering of love.

[kublakhan27]

The style and form remind me of someone but I can't put my finger on who...Cummings maybe? Or Oscar Wilde even...it's an intense composition...the urgency in the kitten's spite really comes through in the pace of the poem and just jump off the screen...great piece.

[kublakhan27]

plight, not spite haha

[Pryde Foltz]

Honestly, I've never read much poetry before this. Really. Theatre and prose girl, here. Someone else pointed out a similarity to Cummings and so I checked him out. He liked the shifted type-face but I could not fathom why he did it, rhythm perhaps, but I didn't read anything out loud. Wilde--familiar with him as a playwright. Brillant. I would have to look at his poems.

The tiger/big cat imagery in water has personal resonance for me. And it had been playing in mind all day, the swimming tiger, and then I sat down to do some editing and the piece formed almost in entirety---a vision dare we say. So who knows? Maybe Mr. Wilde was whispering in my ear. Oh, to be so lucky. Thank you for the read and the review. Have a great one.

[kublakhan27]

I was eager to read this one in light of how prolific you are with other genres...I'm a Shakespeare buff so I've read or seen most of his plays (in fact I'm going to see Hamlet on Aug.1, which I'm really excited about) and I've followed some other plays as well...our influences have a way of shouldering themselves into what we write, often unconsciously, and the ones that write themselves are often the most poignant...great day to you as well.