“It struck her how eating was a comfort during a hard time because it reminded you that there had been other days, good days, when you’d eaten the same thing. Reminded you there were good days in life, when precious little else did.“

             Ron Rash (Serena)

Hello fellow poets!

We are in the middle of a right royal mess! Some men, who think they are very powerful, are busy starting wars as if playing video games; killing real people, jeopardizing innocent lives, destroying economies and affecting the whole world for their sport. We actually don’t know whose war it is anyway!

“In war, the first casualty is truth.” – Hiram Johnson

But that’s not the topic for Poetics today.

Most of us try to find something that would distract us from volatile crises and chaos. Some paint, some crochet, some write and some watch reels! When I feel things are getting beyond my control, I turn to food i.e. cooking. There is something about feeling the texture of each ingredient, the aroma of different spices, the crisp vegetables, the juicy fruits that prepping, chopping, kneading etc.  is so very calming. By the time I have laid the table, my frayed nerves are soothed and the satisfied faces after the meal make me feel all catastrophes are manageable.

Onions by William Mathews

“How easily happiness begins by  

dicing onions. A lump of sweet butter  

slithers and swirls across the floor  

of the sauté pan, especially if its  

errant path crosses a tiny slick

of olive oil. Then a tumble of onions.

This could mean soup or risotto  

or chutney (from the Sanskrit

chatni, to lick). Slowly the onions  

go limp and then nacreous

and then what cookbooks call clear,  

though if they were eyes you could see”

For some cooking is meditative and mindful, whereas for others it is fraught with mishaps and ruined meals. But it is rarely you will find a person who is not interested in food at all! Family meals help foster healthy emotional bonds besides of course, the physical health benefits.

Family Reunion by Maxine Kumin

“Benign and dozy from our gluttonies,

the candles down to stubs, defenses down,

love leaking out unguarded the way

juice dribbles from the fence when grounded

by grass stalks or a forgotten hoe,

how eloquent, how beautiful you seem’

Food is the universal language that binds us. It is often the ultimate expression of love. When we cook for someone, in a way we are expressing our love for them. We all find comfort in food, especially if it is home cooked.. Some of us live to it but some eat to live!

On a diet by William Mathews

”The ruth of soups and balm of sauces

I renounce equally. What Rorschach saw

in ink I find in the buttery frizzle

in the sauté pan, and I leave it behind,

and the sweet peat-smoke tang of bananas,

and cream in clots, and chocolate. I give

away the satisfactions of food and take

desire for food: I’ll be travelling light”

We have had so many festivals this past week. St. Patrick’s day, Eid, the Hindu new year and Nowruz, the Persian new year have all just gone by. We all have special recipes for the special meals we cook or eat on special days.

Recipe by Miles Hardingwood

 ”I don’t say how I dreamed you

came back as a secret I couldn’t keep, then

left again but this time I knew

we are one part sugar, two parts flour, one part sea foam, one part peppermint,

two parts maize, three parts firewood, one part grape juice, two parts rhubarb

and we will swim together again.”

Wonderbread by Alfred Corn

”Loaf after loaf, in several sizes,

and never does it not look fresh,

as though its insides weren’t moist

or warm crust not the kind that spices

a room with the plump aroma of toast.”

De-stringing Beans by Elizabeth Smithers

”A mountain of runner beans

to top and tail and de-string.

She decides to do it for them: her sons

so they will be eaten this evening

sliced into green splinters

with pink seeds showing through.”

I usually write quite a lot about food in my poems because I love cooking and I love writing. It has always mattered what food I put in my body, and it is the same with poetry. I love poetry that satisfies my reading tastebuds whether I am writing or reading. So for today’s Poetics, I would love a presence of food in your poems. You can employ any form but touch upon food; vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy, desserts you love or hate. It could be about why you love/abhor cooking/baking, your most memorable/miserable meal ever, your relationship with food…the possibilities are endless.

Now come on, get writing! I’ll be awaiting your poems eagerly.

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