Where's the final stopover for unfinished poems?

Abandoned lines. Torn/discarded. Lost in files. Journals never re-read are language crypts. Consider: can a fragment be a poem? On this, Sappho has an opinion.


What to serve? Tapas, a meal in fragments. Try: garlicky olives; selection of non-wimpy cheeses; sautéed mushrooms; white beans & tuna w/marjoram; marinated figs; garlic shrimp; a spread of chickpeas, roasted beets, olive oil, garlic. Of course, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (Anne Carson, trans.).

What is the correspondence between blogging and this much rain?

Water-saturated San Francisco is visibly greening. Slant of rain on window -- eyebrows, diacritical marks. Each room feels like a library. A consequence of rain is fragrance.


Make soup, of course. Rough-cut vegetables. Plenty of garlic. Fistfuls of spinach added just before serving. Bowlfuls. Crusty bread. Company. Conversation not about weather. Perhaps, poetry. Yes, poetry.

Why is conversation the aphrodisiac of aphrodisiacs?

Talking over the slurp of oysters. Mmmmm. Was intimacy ever so public, ever so poetic? Well then, consider laughing as the echo of conversation which silence will pare to a delicate comfort.



Remember this on your birthday. Pair this with whomever and revel.

As a child, do you remember which book made you say, "I will learn to read?"

For me it was Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (translated by Edward FitzGerald, Random House, 1947). The color illustrations and gilded borders were nothing like I was accustomed to growing up in a small, northern New Jersey town. No reference points except a wanting to experience.


Nothing like your first book; nothing like a Jersey tomato.

Do you trust, can you follow, are you drawn into a cookbook which does not have color photos of at least a few of the recipes?

Which is to ask -- in our minds do words exist without color, shape, even taste? Are there words which are not springboards to silence? Can such words create a poem? I’d like to hear from you; please email a comment. Thanks.


Returning to cooking, Mark Bittman has authored two brilliantly creative tomes, sans color illustration of any of the dishes. I taste and see every recipes as I thumb through:

How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food, Wiley Publishing, Inc,1998.

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007.

If no question is being considered, can a poem happen?

Subtle and/or close to invisible yet an inquiry, essential. Answer isn’t the destination. Allowing a question to be is comfort food.

Try this: sautéed carrots (almost caramelized) in olive oil with garlic, to which you add roasted walnuts, fresh rosemary, and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. Always have olives on hand.

Reading the headlines, is it monstrous to write a quiet poem or suggest a picnic?

Are poems ever devoid of the personal, the political, or far from food?


Feed the stranger so she becomes a friend.