Coda. Can a poem be devoid of conclusion?

Is conclusion the same as ending? Narrative? Experience: echo. Hand print. Is there a recyclable place for repetition?


Of food (always): garlic. Period.

Gesture. What gesture does poetry make?

Indentation? Mark? Rut?

Memory. Sound remembered.


Consider the memory of food. Who could be grateful (enough) for toasted cheese w/tomato. Or Mom’s spaghetti w/meatballs or the unexpected pancakes for super.

Make poems: eat: be grateful. Pop popcorn. Thank the friend who listens. Listen to the music that makes you cook. Open the bubbly. Share. This is for Terry & Sue.

Cryogenic. How does a poem behave at very low temperatures?

Recognizable as poetry? Sluggish? Frozen? Pristine?

And if the audience is cryogenic?



Now imagine a week without frozen food. Today defrost chicken soup for lunch. Serve with fresh-cooked jasmine rice. Place rice in a round white soup bowl with rim, add a layer of field greens and pour the steaming soup over. Over the top in taste. Fresh ground pepper, of course.

Palette. What's a poem's palette?

words
inspiration
play
experience
poet’s voice
performance
energy?


A food analogy: think before bruschetta when only a small slice of toast. To which your imagination plays from classic (sliced tomatoes with garlic, basil, and pine funs) to improv (slice of blue cheese, roasted pears, roasted walnuts, and perhaps roasted onion). Or marinated petite black figs w/fennel seed added to the sliced tomato. Yes, serious play. Best pared with the best of company.

Why does a mention of poetry often cause a rise in an eyebrow?

If shoulders were involved, would it be a shrug?



Regarding food, eyebrows have never been a delicacy, I believe. Personally, corn dogs makes my eyebrows go kaflooey.

Iris. How does a poem accomplish its seeing?

Gratitude. Grit.

Last Friday I saw the first iris – small, white, delicate. (Have they withstood these last days of slashing rain/wind?) Harbinger of wildflowers. Next to me, one recorded them digitally. Pen, is my preferred vehicle of remembrance.


A cook sees; the meal ensues.

There’s that bond between poet and poem, too. And the audience with a myriad of lenses?

This post is for the poet, irisblue.

Eucalyptus. What's the poetic kinship with eucalyptus?

Common
Recognizable
Flexible
Invasive
Flowers & buds -- a nod to nature
Fragrant (certain ones)
Sirens birds – crows to hummingbird. And koalas
Volatile. Combustible. Use caution



One word about cooking: don’t.

Bifocals. Is a poem best edited by one wearing bifocals?

How else does a poem guarantee close-up and distance clear-cut seeing? Details and the big picture.



Can the same be said of the cook? An onion close up is not the same as one slow-roasted. To which add cut Compari tomatoes. Perhaps a trace of cumin.

Parallel. Does a poem conform to the laws of parallel lines?

In theory, nothing meets. Or is a poem under the geometric sway of the horizon?


On any given day a restaurant serves the exact meal to many diners. Is each enjoying parallel tastes?

Are any writing a parallel poem?

Cavernous. By nature is a poem cavernous?

Space (enormous) where a poet (or the reader of) is lost (temporarily?) in a personal geometry of word-line. Perhaps, found in the cavities of a few words.

On the to-do list (which tends to be enormous), cross everything out except: Read haiku.


Regarding food. Soups & stews. A large pot simmering. Or olives resolute with cavernous taste. Pitted or not.

Fragmented. Does a poem siren the fragmented?

To what end?
To which beginning?

Is a poem a “solved” jigsaw puzzle?



Can the same be said of meal? Which fragment do you remember tasting last night?

Observe. Are poems vehicles to observe?

If so, what do they see and who is doing the seeing? Is the way a poem embodies what it sees its gesture to the ear and to the page?



Thus, can we extrapolate -- does food observe both cook & eater? Does this observation begin the craft of taste?

Again, purple carrots. A knife completes the observation.

Solution. Does a poem offer one?

Or are words to be taken at face value like coins. Then again currency is quixotic & volatile. If any left, to what use put?



Ingredients, a meal’s solution. Leftovers being the supreme ones.


Leftover (Jasmine) Rice Salad #9

cooked Jasmine rice to which add:

cooked sliced asparagus
lemon
olive oil
lemon thyme
roasted almonds
diced purple (yes, purple) baby carrots
grind pepper to taste

Never eat alone! Share your words.

Basket. Is a poem a word basket?

Perhaps a glass bowl. Then ask, translucent or textured?



Much the same with a savory meal. Easily recognizable ingredients (ie, common foods) make the fine soup. To which spices (or herbs) add taste’s texture. Surprise. Perfection.

Ignites. Does a certain word ignite another in a line of poetry?

Such as light does green. Filtered through cypress. Wow. If you wish to wax philosophical – illuminated.


Smell does this to taste. Chicken soup simmering. Taste the smell & rhythm.

Said. Is a poem a declaration?

What is meaning? Personal? Weight of stone, potato, feather? Of mirror? Whispered conversation?


Garlic -- one of the most said-full foods. Thank goodness.