Potato salad is the poem, right?

WARNING: There is no mayo in this dish.

peel, cube, & cook red-skinned potatoes
saute rainbow chard in olive oil
cook golden beets. peel & cube (perhaps, you did this yesterday morning in anticipation)
mix potatoes, chard, beets with olive oil, pepper, fresh lemon thyme, walnuts
yes, if ripe tomatoes were available, you would cube one glorious orb. today, that is doubtful, but I'll leave it to your judgement

consider adding feta
consider adding avocado

consider, the poem nearly "finished." you simply need to start it.

reach for the fork

How is cooking beets a timer for poetry?

Beets are great. All kinds. Golden, especially. To cook they take time. A poem takes time. Thus, beets and poems are related. Then again, I think food is the matriarch of poetry.

Now, what of flowers?

How does purple jasmine rice anticipate a poem?

This is the first time cooking and tasting purple jasmine rice. Nutty & sweet. Luscious color. Won't be the last. I'm thinking what poem can converse with --

timbale of purple jasmine rice surrounded on a pretty plate with the followed sauté

fresh ginger, roasted/marinated garlic
shrimp with tails (for the grabbing)
snap peas
a bit of soy sauce

you can eat the color

and what poem ensues after lips licked?

How does breakfast inspire a poem?

That's when breakfast centers around the unexpected. Smoked pepper salmon, sliced Persian cucumbers, and the freshest of fresh strawberries (add a leaf of lemon thyme). The next poem written will unlikely be narrative. It's all about color. It's all about the layering of tastes. The striation of sound.

Oh, what a year for strawberries.

Which poems resemble a platter of roasted beets?

Hopefully, the next ones written. There is nothing as beautiful as sunrise/sunset, beets, a poem with fine & true surprise. Each full of the weight of the ripe -- experienced freshly.

What does olive oil have in common with the paper a poem appears on?

Both are medium. Olive oil for cooking (all dishes, all manner of) and paper for gestures, sometimes poems. All things need a beginning. A go-to, so to speak.

Which vegetable spearheads the writing of a poem?

Asparagus.
Steamed or roasted. Plain or in the the company of --

asparagus salad with shrimp & almonds & olive oil & black pepper & lemon & tomatoes (if they be ripe) & depending upon the season either fuyu persimmons or manila mangoes

What happens when you peel a poem?

You get skin. And what to do with that?

Which brings us to the real topic -- the influence food has on poetry at the most immediate & intimate levels.

How is the refrigerator a casebook for managing poetry?

No, not magnets. No poems on the refrigerator (although I have no problems with them).
Consider, how cleaning out the refrigerator is akin to sorting through all your poems and giving the heave-ho to those that would best serve as mulch.

Tomorrow is garbage day and there are scraps of poems aplenty for pick-up. The refrigerator is looking quite smart, too.

How does a beautifully crafted pizza ensure a fine poem is forthcoming?

First, what beautifully crafted pizza? To cornmeal crust add smoked salmon, tomatoes, goat cheese, olives. This tastes as fine to the mouth as a fine poem would.

A good meal ensure conversation.
What is a poem if not conversation?

How does the refrigerator influence a poem?

Opening.
Seeing.
Tasting.
Touching.
Arranging color.

What one word is shared by food & poetry?

What to do when the dish and the poem miss the mark?

The mouth, the ear understands failure. Mentions it and moves along. Dwelling on the less-than never invites abundance.
And what is writing, what is a fine meal if not abundances. Rainbow chard being an extravagance.

A few days ago, I roasted kale. Didn't work. Neither did the lines of poetry that morning. Discarded, both. Looking forward to what the next remodel of leftovers will issue.

Hue. What is a truly ekphrastic poetry about hue?

Is this another way to say, "And if the eggplant weren't purple?" Of course, that invites the retort, "And what of the albino aubergine?"

Hue is intrinsic to a poem. A poem is intrinsically taste & color and the sound of each. And all.

How does the shape of a dried pear influence that of a poem?

Not the shape as much as the level of unexpected sweetness. Yet balanced. Nourishing. Poems can have the same effect in the mouth.

Regarding shape, some poems appear deflated as a piece of dried pear and as the latter, a such-shaped poem can be unexpected and mighty sweet.


WHILE WAITING IN THE KITCHEN FOR A POEM TO BE REALIZED, YOU REALIZE THE SHAPE OF A DRIED PEAR MUST BE ALTERED

she took
a pair
scissors
cut the dried
pear
bits
& pieces
placed
in small
(very)
bowl
inverted
thus
a mound
appears
on white
plate
befriending
the perfectly
ripened
cheese

What is the most prevalent hue among vegetables and poems?

No single hue can describe.
Nothing singular about perspective.
The eye makes a plural of the singular.

What connection between asparagus and the unwritten poem?

Anticipation. Looking forward with glee to the advent of plentiful asparagus in the markets. Knowing it won't be long and the waiting, rewarded. The mouth knows such things.

Sometimes there's a specific moment when you know the next poem will be begun. Sometimes with glee. Always with a sense of expectation.

For sure, dread in either asparagus or poem-making.