Beat. What did the Beats do to beat?

Beat it, of course. Expanded it to conversation and condensed and made it howl raggedly so.


Beets, how I love them. Roasted and drizzled with olive oil. Adding blue cheese, walnuts, tarragon or basil. Twist of pepper. All manner of beets, too. Once in a New Orleans Restaurant (Bayona?) I feasted on a trio of beets. A beet rose w/blue cheese. Memory is a taste bud.

Bar. Is that the poetic answer to single or double but never plural?

One separates feet and double ensures a modest snooze.



Applied to neighborhood and liquids, bar is never singular. Perhaps, consecutive is apt to crawl into the imagination.

Arsis. To stress or to unstress. Is that the query?

The answer depends upon whether you are Greek or English. Those who wish to speak Latin will side with the English, I am told. The larger question is, how much stress can a poem handle?


Stressed food? Does chopping, blending, mixing, roasting, baking, boiling cause stress in food. What of the microwave? Come to think of it, I recently heard poems which have, in retrospect, been overly nuked.

Amphibrach. Is the rare in English, worthy of the quest?

How is a trinity of syllables like the holy grail? At the end, was the journey worthwhile: that relationship to syllable and silence?


With global markets & shifting population, the once exotic/unknown is now simply pricey. The definition of the ripe is under scrutiny. Is frozen corn, corn? Are tomatoes with little or no taste, tomatoes? This food curmudgeon wants to know.

Alliteration. Does alliteration seduce a poem?

Or shall it be said, poet? With either poem or poet, is thought derailed? Of course, sound moves to a different track.



Food and alliteration, you ask. Of course, on the color plane. Observe cherries and apricots with avocado and blue cheese on romaine. Add walnuts and sliced Persian cucumbers, carrots. Crunch is a subset of alliteration. Ponder the carrot. Crunch and carrot being on point.

Telestich. When is a poem's stanza not forming another?

Beginning and ending. Sounds beget sounds; we label these words. They beget.


We label tastes in cooking. Have our favorites. Piling (imposing?) one flavor on another. We declare our new favorite: Persian cucumber

w/:
smoked salmon, creme fraiche or
radishes, oranges, olives or
apple & Irish cheddar or
tomatoes, snap peas, almonds or
more tomatoes, hummus, tahini

Truncation. Is truncation the underlying tool of a minimal poem?

Things that should be there can go missing in a poem. Equals confusion. Edits of prose structure can lead to the minimal style of poetry. Petite eloquence. Petite starkness. Echoes across ravine.



When food is truncated is that the equivalent to snacking? Or, trail mix?