What to eat before giving a poetry reading?

SALAD IN A BOWL w/basil

cooked petite potatoes  -  cubed
cooked & cut French string beans
small heirloom tomatoes -- all shapes & color (especially orange)
walnuts
slices of roasted pear
feta
black olives
pepper
olive oil
splash of Balsamic vinegar
& basil

the bowl no longer inconvenienced by emptiness

What does the refrigerator share with blank paper?

A refrigerator is a palette from which a meal is made.   

Blank paper is the palette from which a poem might appear.  

What initiates a meal? What initiates a poem?

Hunger.

Or Figs.

as in:

OR FIGS
One should be as greedy for love
as one is for the ripest of peaches.

(From INTENTIONS -- portfolio of poems with Kit Kennedy and drawings by Susan Gangel,
CoLab Press, San Francisco, 2013.

What three words link smoked salmon and poetry?

Celebration.
Intentions.
haiku.

Now, a bit of the backstory.

Today is the official birthday of haiku, the precocious, adorable, handsome, genius healer-cat who turns a rousing 10 years.  Yesterday we celebrated haiku's birthday at herchurch with song & smoked salmon.

Tonight at Keane's 3300 Club, San Francisco Susan Gangel & I launch INTENTIONS -- a portfolio of my poems & Susan's drawings.

And both are a celebration.

So drop by at Keane's @ 29th & Mission -- tonight @ 7PM.   Open mic follows.

How can petite potatoes surprise as can a small poem?

The size of both surprises.  It engages you with acceptable cuteness.  The petite potatoe's taste lingers & fills more that you might expect.  Hopefully, the same is true of the small poem.

Now, take that make-believe caprese salad (made with malabar spinach) and add a few cooked & preferably warm petite potatoes.  Do you feel the advent of words?

Sometimes it's too hot to cook. Sometimes is it too cold to write a poem?

So what is the connection with weather & poetry?  I am wondering. & hopeful that the farmer's market will have an abundance of fennel for roasting.  Because it isn't too hot to turn on the oven.

While the bulbs roast, I will contemplate the proper heat necessary for a poem to be edible and feat on smoked trout. What will you be doing?

What does malabar spinach offer a poem?

What it offers itself.  Crunch.   To be more descriptive:  crunch in a vivid green.

To be truthful as all blogs are, malabar spiniach is not spinach at all.  More vine-ish. 

The same might be said of the next poem written (it not being a poem but more vine-ish).


SALAD ALMOST AS IF IT WERE CAPRESE

heirloom tomatoes --- cube the larger ones & add orange cherries
malabar spinach -- strip the leaves
small mozzarella balls
black olives
pine nuts
olive oil
pepper

toss and serve in a glass bowl

toss the next poem across blank paper

What is the equivalent of editing a poem in food?

Cleaning out the refrigerator.  Combining leftovers, making the disparate whole. Or at least more of a  sum than parts. 

Also there's a bit of a prompt in this.  Given a handful of ingredients, what's the dish?
A prompt can generate a poem.  Or at least its attempt.

What do roasted walnuts have in common with poetry?

Walnuts have fine taste.  Roasting them lightly expands that taste.  Think of editing as the equivalent of roasted.  Editing makes the small larger just as roasting expands the taste of a handful of nuts. 

The release of oil.  Each word releasing its essence.

Less is needed.  Less is more.  

What 2 things befriend roasted salmon and a poem?

Lime for its refreshing bite.
Avocado for lush creaminess.

Roasting salmon is a dance of balance.
Writing a poem is getting to the still point of balance.
The qualities of both lime and avocado are appreciated by roasted salmon and a poem.

What is balance in food and poetry?

A balance -- celebrating the ripe in both food & poetry.  A farmer's market is an apt example as is a new notebook in which new poems might find their way to ripeness. 

How are olives an exploration of poetry?

First, let's establish we are speaking of olives with pits.   A poem is an exploration of the sweetmeat around a core.  The olive pit is core.

By the way, a pit-less olive allows a poem to explore it's core in anyway is wishes.  Be it void.  Be it bowl.

So you see, there is losing with olives.  Pit, pit-less, or however they be dressed.

No quite that easy with a poem, of course.

How can a cream cheese sandwich influence a poem?

It comes down to the bread.  European style, thin and dark and dense, and full of seeds.  To which a hand familiar spreads whipped cream cheese.  Perhaps, a dab of blood orange jam.  Perhaps, not.  There are times, the quality and texture of paper influences the poem.  This tactile delight is absent with a screen.

Which 2 words condemn gluten-free pasta and certain kinds of poetry?

Mushy.
Flabby.  

Which foods are particularly conducive to a poetry reading?

Whatever is ripe at whichever time the reading occurs. Certainly food to which a handful of nuts accessorizes. 
What nuts, you ask?   Any which are not overly processed, made funny, or made unrecognizable. 

How do chives lend punctuation to a poem?

First, let's think of punctuation not in terms of speed but of bite.
Chives have a nice bite to them.
The mouth satisfies.
Colorr & spear-shape satisfy eyes..
Stimulates the pen.  Thus, a poem
might...

Minimalist Epic to Cream Cheese

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chives