Thursday, January 18, 2007

Poetry Thursday #3

Today’s poetry challenge is to reuse a line from another blogger’s poem which has been posted at the site, and then leave one of mine for someone else to use. There were about 40 possibilities when I stopped by to look, and I chose the line “resting in a clean white bowl.” [Megan] I carried the sentence with me on a scrap of paper. At one point, I was going to fill the bowl with steaming ears of sweet corn, and then write a lament about ethanol--preferring not to see golden grain streaming out tail pipes. But it was truly an awful impulse and I squelch it.

When I was at the library yesterday I noticed there were 30 cookbook titles on the new book shelf and another 18 in the nearby nutrition classification. Certainly overkill in a society concerned with obesity. (The more variety, the more you eat.) I jotted down a few titles, on the same scrap with my line--i.e., "The Kitchen Diaries," and "Wrestling with gravy." Today when I got out my clean white bowl, it was filled to overflowing with gravy! Gravy has been on my list of foods to avoid for the last 3 months. I moved the word “resting” to another line.


The Kitchen Diaries

Wrestling with gravy
in a clean white bowl
my finger wipes a smudge
on resting lips.
I swoon.
My tongue is pleased
to hold a moment of
sensuous memories
from waiting hips.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like what you did with the line. It just calls out for something yummy.

Tina said...

I like how you came to the conclusion to write about gravy. And I also like the way it kind of rhymes (lips and hips). Very sweet.

Tina said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I think it's cool that we choose the same line. The Kitchen Diaries sounds like it should be a show.

Thanks for commenting.

Sassy Dewy

xo

Anonymous said...

lip smacking... I can taste the flesh!

Anonymous said...

Great title! I really like how you captured this one moment. I also really liked the lips and hips.

Anonymous said...

Bravo. Nice job.

Anonymous said...

That was very good! My tongue would be pleased too.

This week I'm doing Thursday Thirteen. I rotate every other week so it doesn't bore me doing just one thing all the time.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful kitchen poetry mixed with sensual feeling...

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

I'm coming over for dinner!

Anonymous said...

I smiled reading your thoughts about approaching the writing. I smiled some more over your poem...the lips, the hips...the desire, the restraint...nicely done. And then...what a treat to think of someone carrying a line I've written around with them. Thank you for sharing that major encouragement!

Anonymous said...

Love the title...cookbooks are like kitchen diaries. Reminds me of the book I just finished reading: Tender at the Bone. Love the images.

Anonymous said...

I love that first line "wrestling with gravy." It draws you right into the vision of it. Very nice!

Anonymous said...

So good - and such a surprise last line! I love it.

BTW: I used your line this week - thanks!

Anonymous said...

I really like the sensuality of this poem...food is a very overrated sensual (and forbidden) experience.

I agree with Jone... Ruth Reichl (author of Tender at the Bone) would approve of this poem!

Dani In NC said...

"Wrestling with gravy" is a great line. I wrestle with making it properly and I wrestle with not eating too much of it!

Anonymous said...

I really like how you adapt the "resting" into "wrestling," and the rest of your poem is so smart, witty, and dead on. Yes.

Anonymous said...

I love the shortness of it which conveys too much.