What can the short poem learn from a lemon?

A sense of "precisely." Lemons, their juice, their rinds are precise in taste -- one could say astringent and not be too far off the mark. Short (very), very short poems have a bing of lemon to them.

Now, consider pepper (as in black).

What struggle does a pineapple & a poem share?

The discernment of ripeness. One tugs on a pineapple spear to see if it comes loose in the hand. If so, it it ripe & ready.

Kindly tell me if you know the gesture which determines a poem is ripe & ready.

Truth to tell, truth has much in common with the word "probably."

What one act improves food & poetry?

Sharing.

The sharing of taste, color, & sound. And all the narrative & lyricism that one simple gesture encompasses.

Happy birthday PK! Thanks for sharing your delicious forbidden rice salad.

What are kale shoots and why does that bring on a poem?

As it was explained to me at the farmer's market, kale sends out shoots when it thinks its time is over. The farmer has another idea. Chops off these shoots and tricks the kale plant into continue to grow.

What do kale shoots resemble? A short poem with attitude and a strong taste. OK. A darker version of broccolini.


Saute kale shoots with Spring garlic. Take the pen to a blank page.

Imagine there is no cheese in the house. Imagine there is no poetry. Is this hell?

Perhaps this is the seasonal fallow. It will move into abundance or it won't. Time will get back to us. Don't expect the cat to.

But there is cheese (at least 3 kinds) and, yes, there is poetry. Yes, abundance resides -- the noon hour declares. And then there were 2. Cheeses.

How does the sequence of cooking reflect poetry?

In cooking there is a beginning, probably a middle, and an end. Consider, much of cooking begins offsite with the ripening of the seasonal. The cook then takes the season's largess and rearranges its color. Often on a white dish with a shallow rim. Sometimes using heat; sometimes not. But almost always, a knife is employed.

The poet is tethered to the seasonal in much the same way. Much of a poem is done before the writing of, happens. As in cooking, there can be (with writing) joy in the beginning and joy at the end in sharing. Time made happy and calibrated by a pen.

Which came first the edamame or the very-brief poem?

Put another way, which comes first Spring or Winter? Careful, place is perspective. As is time. As is taste.
By the way, is "very" unnecessary with "brief." Perhaps, I meant blink poems of which I am intimate. Hope you as well.

What do fish and poetry have in common?

Perfection.
Properly cooked, fish delights the senses, in particular the mouth.
With the weight of the ripe, a poem also delights the senses, in particular the mouth. What not the ear? No, the mouth of this I am certain.

For the record a recent perfectly cooked Santa Barbara wild bass at Arch Fish inspired the mouth and the pen. I was certain and overjoyed.

What food best suits National Poetry Month?

Food and poetry are never singular.

There are as many kinds of poetry as there are voices -- alive & in spirit.

Food is seasonal & cultural which has interesting implications for poetry.

For sure, the ripe is always in fashion and much sought after.

When does a poem resemble an olive?

One question spins another.
With pit?
Without pit?

While most poems on the page are flat or linear, enjambment brings a gentle curve. A curve reminiscent of that of olive. Somewhere in the past, poem & olive shared an ancestor -- bowl.

Bowls, of course, perfect containers for poems & olives. For that matter, pits.

What commonality does shaped food and shaped poems share?

I should add, besides shape.
Shaped food and shaped poems share the element of surprise.

Try this experiment. Take a rice salad (forbidden rice, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, herb of your choice, olive oil, pepper, nuts of your choice, avocado cubed). Fill a small rammaken with rice salad. Invert. Top with cut manilla mango. Heavenly taste. Heavenly shape.

How do lemons and the paper a poem is written on resemble each other?

The short direct answer is shape.
Lemons beg to rest in a shape resembling a bowl. Concave. The love of a lip.
Poems love to recline. Yes, think bed. Poems are smitten by rest.

What does breakfast and the title of a poem have in common?

Matter.
As it is and does.
Of course, I often think of the title as the first line of the poem. Sometimes, it's the entire poem.

How something begins matters -- whether speaking of the body or a title/text.

So what was today's breakfast?

a pot of black tea early on

then:

cut Persian cucumber
strawberries
smoked salmon (flavored by ginger & tea)
manilla mango

I admit, not the usual 1950s breakfast in New Jersey.

How does editing soup and poetry differ?

It's a matter of math.
Soup improves with addition. Say carrots, or onions, or garlic, or potatoes, or more water, or cooked beets. Yes, I mean cooked beets -- golden or red.

Poetry improves with subtraction. Others call it editing.

Soup and poetry both connect on the level of beets. Surround yourself with the nutritious. With the colorful. Nothing more that necessary. Nothing less.

What form of poem will a marvelous indoor, in the office picnic inspire?

Lunch poems? How can one not think of Frank O'Hara. Ok, besides?

Perhaps, we need to know what was had for lunch? Well, Mt Tam cheese, marinated green olives (fresh lemon thyme, bay leave, lemon rind), sliced tomatoes, strawberries, slided avocado, pecans, baguette. Of course, the cheese was room temperature and precisely ripe. Waiting does that to so many things.

Back to the future poem. I suggest it might include a recipe.

Why today begin celebrating poetry?

Such sweet irony, don't you think, that the first day of National Poetry Month & April Fool's Day coincide. Holy fools for words & weird food.