Udder Uproar

Poetry January 2024 ISBN 978-1-961127-05-0 58 pages Softcover, 6" x 9"

Udder Uproar is Cathy Perkins's debut collection of humorous poems. Courageous, bawdy at times, but always unapologetic, the poems in this book surprise and entertain the reader with their mixture of frankness and vulnerability.

"These poems are big, and funny. They display a mind alert to the vibrance and wit of words, to our fascination with the untalked-about, and to the pathos as well as the humor in living. You will laugh ruefully, for sure, but you'll also relish this celebration of our human resilience and ways we move exuberantly through the world, owning our frailties bravely and even joyfully."—Libby Falk Jones

humor

From the Book

Breaking Rules

There once was a lady poet
who really wasn't a lady
in the noble sense of the word
and she wasn't a grandmother
or a skillet, but she did have one
child, and she, the not-so-ladylike
poet, didn't want to cook,
but did want to write a book.

One day the wise-woman-writer
decided it was time for her poems
to be published. She revised and edited
100 pieces, printed out the entire lot,
placed them in between the bindings
of The American Medical Association
Encyclopedia of Medicine
and Webster's International Dictionary,
both interred in the inherited bookshelf
in her very cluttered yet picturesque writing space.

Now her poems are in print in books
just like books of poetry few will buy
fewer will read and to get it done
she didn't have to submit.

What Others Say

These poems are big, and funny. They display a mind alert to the vibrance and wit of words, to our fascination with the untalked-about, and to the pathos as well as the humor in living. You will laugh ruefully, for sure, but you'll also relish this celebration of our human resilience and ways we move exuberantly through the world, owning our frailties bravely and even joyfully.

— Libby Falk Jones , author of For Your Good Health, Drink Flowers

As fans of Cathy Perkins's standup comedy will expect, Udder Uproar, her bawdy and bodacious debut poetry collection, delivers laughs by the gallon, every drop of it full-fat. You will roar at her sexy, scandalous odes to the body's naughty bits—her own and those of the opposite sex—and be dazzled and charmed by the exuberant wordplay of this queen of alliteration. Amid the hilarity, it will be easy to miss the underlying lament at the heart of this book, which in the end is about the indignities of aging. With every one of these gut-busting poems, Perkins deals death a mighty wallop.

— Kevin Nance , author of Even If and Midnight

Wit and wordplay mark Udder Uproar, Cathy Perkins's debut collection, an eclectic volume whose poems range from free verse to forms—limericks, a villanelle, some blues, and a sonnet that tries to deconstruct itself! Perkins is a poet bent on meeting existence with intelligence and bracing humor. Her raucous, sometimes outrageous poetry casts a compassionate, corrective eye on life's irritations and indignities. Udder Uproar celebrates one woman's life—as it is—and creates space for us to do the same for ourselves. Cathy Perkins's exuberant and earthy poems give us permission to own our bodies and live our lives—imperfect, damaged, buoyant, healing.

— Leatha Kendrick , author of And Luckier

About the Author

Cathy Perkins

Catherine Perkins (she/her), poet, stand-up comedian, horse-crossing guard, zero-turn mower operator, artist, musician and semi-retired horsewoman, relocated from the east coast to Central Kentucky in 1984. Catherine and her husband, Wayne Mackey, own Perkins Mackey Stable, a Thoroughbred training and racing enterprise. Catherine has no college degrees and no awards, yet her poems appear in online journals, blogs and in numerous printed anthologies and journals. Udder Uproar is Catherine's first published collection.

Facebook: Wackey Cathy Mackey@poetryisapassion

Instagram: Wackey Cathy Mackey (wackeycathymackey)