Tis the Season for Flavorful Poems!
Photo by 1187283 on pixabay
Culinary Verse, Anyone?
Today, we will be shifting our focus from exploring metaphors as we did in "Light, Part 2," to lighthearted reading and writing about the flavorful and the flavorless or terribly flavored, according to personal opinion ; ). This is a seasonally appropriate and hopefully joyful endeavor as we are now celebrating the winter holidays.
Write a poem about something you love or hate to eat. To write about food, you will certainly have to describe taste and flavor. Your goal is to make us salivate : ) or if writing about a food you dislike, to cause us to cringe in disgust. This project can be made fun by not revealing your chosen food. Instead, ignite our curiosity with your images that will help us guess your subject.
Writing from this prompt provides you with a springboard, a subject from which to take off with your poem. You could consider the time of year and what is being prepared in your kitchen or in the kitchen(s) or restaurants you and your friends and family will visit. You can set the scene, if you wish, by using images to describe the dining table and guests. Be especially attentive to the senses evoked by food: taste, aroma, feel in your hands or mouth, the visuals of this dish, and consider other aspects such as the ambience. Depending on your chosen subject, sound may also play a part: think of cracking lobster claws or crunching popcorn.
You may find it more natural and enjoyable to write about a food you strongly dislike. After all, strong feelings and reactions elicit the best verse. Help your reader to taste, smell, see and/or feel the texture of this unappreciated dish so that perhaps they can commiserate with you ; ). This writing assignment lends itself to humor. Allow free rein to all the wildly imaginative images your mind can conjure.
Right below the pic of bees is a poem I wrote during the depths of winter about a food I enjoy. Read my poem and see if you can guess what food I’m describing.
Reply in the comments section with your food poems. Let's devour some culinary verse!
Photo by mariananbu on pixabay
Citrus Paradisi
Digging into its deep cave, / I taste more juice than meat. / Tart, pungent triangles covered in sugar snow, / this wonder from Barbados / bombs my tongue and throat / with tangy sparks of citrus paradise. // Discontent with only the top layer / of segmented ruby flesh, / I tear through tough, sustaining rind / and invert the circular half. / Sections part, / separate into open buds of fruit, / sweetness that bees would die to collect / if given the chance. / My reward for effort, / Succulence devoured. // Let Costa Rican cooks / strip these golden jewels / of their sour edge, / render them as vessels / of caramel syrup. / I will gorge / on their natural glory. // Taste of the tropical. / Throw the white rind / into the disposal. / Turn it on. / Savor the scent. // Nothing is wasted. // -Diana Ewell Engel
Did you guess the subject of my poem?
If you answered “grapefruit,” you are correct!
This gorgeous grapefruit photo is by Katy_Heejin on pixabay.
Some time ago, I became enamored with grapefruit. During the dreary season of winter, it was one of the few fruits I could regularly find in my supermarket.
I thought about the shape of grapefruit, how I would start with a globe and cut it in half; the pretty pink triangles of fruit. I would top these with way too much sugar that looked like snow. An image! I thought. I realized that I used every bit of the grapefruit, slicing each circular half once finished and throwing the skin into the disposal as a sweet-smelling freshener.
I looked into the history of grapefruit and learned that in Costa Rica, cooks make these golden globes into sweet desserts with caramel syrup.
One of the delightful aspects about writing about a food we love is how we can show unbridled enthusiasm. After all, eating should be a pleasure!
Today’s Book Pick
The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink compiled by Kevin Young, 2012.
Note: The Kindle version of this collection is $9.99; paperback is $10.98. The Hungry Ear contains verse by iconic poets such as Mary Oliver, Lucille Clifton, Tracy K. Smith, Jane Kenyon, Terrence Hayes, Wendell Berry, Li-Young Lee, and William Carlos Williams.
What’s Coming
I look forward to including some of your food poems in next week's blog post, so share your poem in the Comments bubble : ). Next week, we will explore a marvelous poem by Naomi Shihab Nye about coffee.