Are All the Muses Cats?
Let’s workshop this poem about an artist who wants to get his phone to record himself in the zone and yet feels that changing even the smallest detail might make the improvisional magic go away
scent of the day: Fate Man, by Amouage (a labdanum-cedarwood-sandalwood trifecta whose aura, although most definitely rooted in the orient, feels as cosmopolitan as its ingredients would suggest: a warm and earthy copaiba balsam from South American, an incensey olibanum from the middle east, a curry-maple-syrup immortelle from the Mediterranean, a bitter-medicinal wormwood connecting it with the help of licorice to European absinthe, and a load of Indian spices like anise and cumin and saffron and ginger)
Are All the Muses Cats?
He wanted to get the phone
to record that just-cannot-miss magic,
but feared the time
to go downstairs (a trek hard
not to see as a muse-dissing parade
in homage to the ego)
would sling him into familiar exile:
playing too in his head,
uncalibrated to the trance.
"Are All the Muses Cats?" explores the tension between creative inspiration and the self-consciousness that can interrupt its flow. The poem presents a moment of hesitation: the speaker wishes to record a fleeting moment of creative magic but fears that any attempt to capture it will disrupt the delicate balance required for artistic expression. The muse, often represented as an elusive force in artistic traditions, is here likened to a cat—independent, unbothered by human concerns, and easily scared off by overt efforts to control or pin it down. The speaker’s internal struggle mirrors the creative process itself, where inspiration can be as fragile and fickle as a cat, slipping away when sought too eagerly.
The trek "downstairs" becomes a metaphor for the peril of overthinking or trying too hard, with the speaker recognizing the risk of losing the trance-like state that fosters creativity. The poem reflects on how the ego can intrude upon artistic work, turning the search for inspiration into a "muse-dissing parade," a self-centered performance rather than a pure, intuitive act. The mention of being "uncalibrated to the trance" suggests a loss of the natural rhythm that allows creativity to flow unimpeded, and the speaker's fear of exile from this state highlights the fragility of creative moments. The poem captures the precariousness of the artist’s mind, always aware that overanalysis and the desire to memorialize can sabotage the very magic they seek to immortalize.
The poem thus reflects the timeless artist's dilemma: the fear that in trying to capture or commodify inspiration, the artist may destroy the very thing they wish to preserve. The fleeting, almost mystical nature of creativity is at the heart of this poem, where the muse—like a cat—demands respect for its autonomy, unwilling to be caged or commanded at will.
creativity, inspiration, muses, artistic process, self-consciousness, ego, creative trance, fleeting moments, creative exile, artistic struggle, capturing creativity.