Cati Porter's latest poetry collection is small mammals (Mayapple Press, 2023). She is the recipient of a 2023 individual artist fellowship from the California Arts Council.

Other poems by Cati Porter in Verse Daily:
June 2, 2022:   "In the Checkout Line at Rite Aid," "Walter the clerk asks..."
October 1, 2016:   "What It's Like to Be a Girl." "Cotton balls and cotton swabs and soft cotton underwear and pin curls..."

Books by Cati Porter:

Other poems on the web by Cati Porter:
Two poems
Three poems
"Go On, Stay"
Four poems

Cati Porter's Website.

Cati Porter on Twitter.

About small mammals:

"In our hyper-real, post-truth world, many poems feel like copies. Reading them feels like watching a sunset on television. How striking and fresh it is — a small miracle, really – to now and then come across the genuine article. These poems by Cati Porter pay loving attention to things that matter: a baby possum's hardscrabble life, a teenager's midnight ambulance ride, gun laws, the tumult of adolescence, and the anxieties of parenthood. Not a line feels false, forced, half-baked, or overcooked. This book is 'an ancient radio / tuned to another / dimension…a portal' that leads us out of the quotidian humdrum, into the realm of pure song."
—Tom C. Hunley

"In small mammals, Cati Porter explores the complexities of being a mother with sons who sometimes sit 'in [the] gut…first a grain of sand, layering up'. These often wry, witty, and haunting snapshots of the small moments of love and anguish illustrate fully the ways the rebellion of teenagehood is a universal truth we should not hide. At the end of the book we learn of the death of one of these boys and this knowledge coupled with the lyrical mastery of voice is simply devastating. This book is a tour de force, one of utter truth and bravery."
—Nikia Chaney

"'Miracle enough was that I saw' reads the first line of small mammals, a line that speaks to the whole collection: it's truly miracle enough that Cati Porter sees. It's an even greater miracle that she documents what she sees through her poetry, and, in doing so, lets us see the world afresh. Her poems help us track the baffling passage of time, help us remember mothering is not for the fainthearted, help us praise dirty socks on the bathroom floor, help us see how eating from our favorite plate, with our favorite fork, can be a joyful act of empowerment. This collection thrums with pain and loss, with the acknowledgment that 'Fruit rots. Wood decays. Rope frays. Bodies burn,' yet it also vibrates with love and hope, with the beautiful reminder that 'The womb of the heart has room to spare.' A clear-eyed, keen-eared miracle of a book."
—Gayle BrandeisBlurbmeister3

"Cati Porter's small mammals dives deep into the beauty, bafflement, and challenges of raising sons. Porter's engaging poems astound with their tenderness, acute observation, and subtle humor. These are not 'mommy poems,' as one male editor misogynistically said about women poets writing about their children—these are well-crafted and compelling poems that will twist your heartstrings and tie them in a knot. From 'I read What to Expect When… /each stage a fresh new hell' to 'Praise the gods that do not take them home / too soon,' these poems will pull you in whether you raised a son, are a son, or know a son. small mammals will sing to you in all the best ways."
—Kelli Russell Agodon