Recently I read that there is healing purpose in the purring of cats, that it heals bones. I wonder now if it serves the same purpose as chanting, reaching to unite.
Now, I come across this poem by Coleman Barks called "Purring." He says the poem is about the nature of poetry.
Purring
The internet says science is not sure how cats purr,
probably a vibration of the whole larynx,
unlike what we do when we talk. Less
likely, a blood vessel moving across the chest wall.
As a child I tried to make every cat
I met purr. That was one of the early
miracles, the stroking to perfection. Here's something
I've never heard: a feline purrs in
two conditions, when deeply content and when
mortally wounded, to calm themselves, readying for the
death-opening. The low frequency
evidently helps to strengthen bones and
heal damaged organs. Say poetry is a human purr, vessel
mooring in the chest, a closed-mouth
refuge, the feel of a glide through dying: one
winter morning on sunny chair inside this only body,
a faroff inboard moterboat
sings the empty room, urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhh
- Coleman Barks
