What % of poems fall below surface?

To rephrase, how is an iceberg like a typically fine poem?



Ah, the good meal is the tip of savored evening.

What if poetry were motorized? Winged?

You mean it isn’t?



It’s a fact. Food, too, travels by motor and by wing.

How does a poem work?

Is it mechanical? Levers, pulleys, engines?
It is skeleton with internal organs?
Does it age?
Is death part of its genetic framework?
It is mostly body? Mostly mind?

Are these artificial distractions?



About a meal, this, too, constructed, revised over time. The good kept. The not-so never attempted again.

Does the poem work?

What is signified by “work?” Heavy lifting? Cerebral shenanigans?


The meal offered (chili flakes added to mussel broth) – that worked. Add thanks to yum.

How many ways does a poem not ask a question?

Language is inherently question-making.



As creatures, it is logical to question our next meal. While waiting, we write.

Can you pinpoint the moment in a poem when you said, "I'll go with the poet?"

You may not understand, but you’re confident she does. Ready for a journey, you follow. Certainty and surprise.



Great bed-sisters for a meal. Color, taste, texture. Done with a deft hand or slight of.

Is pure page-poetry waning?

Unquestionably, performance, multi-media, cross-genre and hybrid are on the ascendant. By the way, what's a "pure" poem?

Poetry began as oral tradition.


Speaking of food and cuisine, migration and cross-mingling made a good thing better. Let's not fret; the table is set.

How do you retrieve a favorite poem?

memory
title
mark in book/bent corner
a file/disk of favorites
Internet
ask a friend
ask a librarian

How do you find a new favorite?



How different is this from locating a favorite recipe or a soon to be?

All roads lead to poetry & food.

How are poems like wine & revolution?

Truth in wine. Truth in word.

Happy Bastille Day!


Tonight talking poetry with a good friend among wine/cheese/bread. Truth will be.

How many voices are in a poem?

Minimum of two – poet & reader. Sometimes poet & reader coincide.
Still two voices. Think of it as public & private.




Not sure why I remember this. At a dinner party a poet-friend gave voice to vegetables. One of her best performances, totally out of character and believable. Eggplant will never be the same. Consider, Georgia O’Keeffe’s small painting of the same. Think of my favorite Thai restaurant, Jitlada, and Chef Pai’s way with eggplant. Like I said, two voices.

Is there a poet for all times for you?

One whose work resonates with each reading. Whose poems never fail
to unfold a richness.




This, too, is personal: which cuisine never disappoints? Always nourishes.

Favorite poet. Favored food inseparable as line & taste.

How does writing a poem relate to mowing the lawn?

Muscle memory. Routine. Editing as in line and grass.



As you improvise on a grilled fruit "salsa" of peach, plum, & fig (w/feta, mint, olive oil, pepper), consider cooking and its correspondence to the above.

If a poem isn't articulated is it a poem?

Never spoken
Never read aloud
Never whispered
Left mute in a journal

Think of a meal never tasted
Never shared
Not one given a cause to be grateful

By nature is poetry visual?

The visual is read. Sound is vibration. Vibration registers as color. Add letters and you have a devilish palette for crafted intention & delicious accident.



Craft & accident, precisely shapes the good meal. How bright those tomatoes w/feta. Unabashed mint.

What is freedom to a poem?

occasion
fervor
intent
timing
style?



Is food ever independent from the cook, from the mouth which praises.

Are poems written in response to a call for submissions different from ones which aren't?

Mind focuses to produce a time-specific product. And what of theme?



Invitation is the cook’s call to submit. Doorbell is her chance to deliver a loose interpretation on a self-directed theme.

Both actions satisfy a hunger.