Friday, November 25, 2022

Poetry Friday: Recipe Poems

The challenge for November was to create a recipe poem---any form or subject---and "serve it forth."   I fear mine is half-baked, but here it is:






HOW TO MAKE DINNER

5:00 PM

Open fridge.

Check date on yogurt.

Really should use it soon.


5:05 PM

Sift through recipes

until one rises

to the top: golden

carrot soup—with rye

toast croutons—

and tarragon-scented

yogurt swirl—

YUM. 

 

5:15 PM

Open fridge again.

Using gloves,

dispose of moldy bag

of carrots.


5:20 PM

Google

substitues—

beets (really?)

parsnips—

who has those

on hand?

celery—

no need to peel

but…

YEECH. 


5:30 PM

Pour a glass of wine.

Imagine

a world where

Star Trek is real

and replicators 

produce carrots

on demand.


Eat celery

while considering

if potatoes

are close enough.


5:35 PM

Open freezer.

Stare at contents.

Close freezer.


5:40 PM

Add carrots

to your grocery list.


Chew on pencil.


Think.


5:45 PM

Open Grubhub.

Scroll.

No one delivers

carrot soup.


You knew that.


Who are you

to crave

such a thing—

Bugs Bunny?


6:00 PM

Stare at

grocery list.


Inspect bite-marks

on pencil. 


Open your mind.


When ready,

underneath “carrots”

carefully write


everything else

you need

you love

you will fight for 


until time

gets frothy

and

evaporates. 


YESSSSS. 


Repeat, 

for as long

as it takes 

to feel full.


Serve it forth. 

 

    ----Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved)



My poetry sisters' recipe poems can be found here:


Liz

Tanita

Laura

Tricia

Kelly

Mary Lee

Andi


Poetry Friday is hosted today by  Ruth at There Is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town





10 comments:

  1. 😂 I'm so glad someone else hates dealing with stringy cooked celery. My dinner prep today is going largely like this poem... Poetry really is easier to compose sometimes than meals...

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  2. Love it, Sara. Here in CT, I am contemplating turkey soup.

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  3. This is so beautiful, Sara. I was chuckling through most of it (and snorting at the moldy carrots, which I know from experience actually IS possible), and then you veered away from the funny ending I thought was coming to expand this into something more, something deeper. Just wonderful!

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  4. I love this and am so glad you ran with this idea. I nodded my head and laughed as I read this. Most of this is me, but I'll admit when I get a recipe in my head, I do run to the grocery store at the eleventh hour so I can make it.

    The ending hit me in the heart. I especially loved "until time/gets frothy/and/ evaporates. "

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  5. Oh. Dear. I am never short of carrots because we eat a lot of carrots here (though I've also never craved carrot soup) but I am ALWAYS short of inspiration and enthusiasm for cooking dinner. (And invariably never have the crucial ingredients.) Could relate!

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  6. Hello, Sara! I also very much enjoyed the refrigerator odyssey and then how you "open(ed) your mind" to write about desire and priorities and resourcefulness. Never let us underestimate the power of the froth!

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  7. How WONDERFUL...such a poet's poem.

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  8. Sara, this poem is so clever. I was loving the funny adventure into the refrigerator but the ending really resonated with me. This is an inspired poem.

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  9. ha ha ha I loved this so much and related to it FULLY

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  10. Eh...carrot soup is overrated when compared to all the other necessary frothy things in life. This poem is worth fighting for.

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