Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ The Food We Eat




“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

10/16 is World Food Day. 


 “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Hippocrates 

Image result for food creative commons images



Midweek Motif ~ The Food We Eat

What is your Recipe for a Healthy Life?  
What foods do you eat (or wish you were eating)??  

Go to the links above to read about World Food Day.  Or simply answer the question(s) literally or conceptually ~ with luscious details, of course ~ in a brand new poem.  I hope you find the quotes, poems and illustrations inspiring!


I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Sliced fruit.jpg
Sliced fruit

Cutting greens


curling them around
i hold their bodies in obscene embrace
thinking of everything but kinship.
collards and kale
strain against each strange other
away from my kissmaking hand and
the iron bedpot.
the pot is black,
the cutting board is black,
my hand,
and just for a minute
the greens roll black under the knife,
and the kitchen twists dark on its spine
and I taste in my natural appetite
the bond of live things everywhere.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Lacinato_Kale_and_Collard_Greens.jpg/1024px-Lacinato_Kale_and_Collard_Greens.jpg
Kale (left) and Collard Greens (right)


. . . .   
we sprinkle the flour on the kitchen table   
and it is snowing on Ararat   
we sprinkle the flour and the memory   
of winter is in our eyes   

we roll the dough out   
into small circles   
pale moons over   
every empty village   

Kevork is standing on a chair   
and singing   
O my Armenian girl
my spirit longs to be nearer

Nevrig is warming the oven   
and a dry desert breeze   
is skimming over the rooftops   
toward the sea   

we are spreading the lahma
on the ajoun with our fingers   
whispering into it the histories   
of those who have none 
. . . .
(Read the rest HERE.)
 
Lahmajoun (Turkish and Armenian pizza) by Arleen
Lahmajoun,Turkish and Armenian


Eating Fried Chicken

By Linh Dinh
 
I hate to admit this, brother, but there are times
When I’m eating fried chicken
When I think about nothing else but eating fried chicken,
When I utterly forget about my family, honor and country,
The various blood debts you owe me,
My past humiliations and my future crimes—
Everything, in short, but the crispy skin on my fried chicken.
But I’m not altogether evil, there are also times
When I will refuse to lick or swallow anything
That’s not generally available to mankind.
(Which is, when you think about it, absolutely nothing at all.)
And no doubt that’s why apples can cause riots,
And meat brings humiliation,
And each gasp of air
Will fill one’s lungs with gun powder and smoke.

Fried Chicken


Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community—
(Next week Sumana’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Forgiveness.)

7 comments:

  1. Good morning, Poets United! Happy Wednesday, and happy eating.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thought-provoking topic and poems, Susan. I'll be back.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great prompt, thank you, enabling me to find a way to approach a difficult but necessary piece of writing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful prompt & my favorite topic. I'll catch up with you all tomorrow morning. It's very late here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Susan,

    Thank you for posting this wonderful prompt topic.
    I allowed autumn's menu to influence my poem.
    Eileen

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you for this prompt. It allows me to write about my substance abuse and recovery of now of 35 years. It also allows me to write about the truth behind what happens in the restaurant kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I referenced A Room of One's Own in a post previously today. :-)

    https://redcat.wordpress.com/2019/10/16/my-own-room-with-a-view/

    Thanks for a thought provoking prompt. Only got a short thing published, but have a handfull drafts that could become something.

    ReplyDelete

This community is not meant to be used in a negative manner. We ask that you be respectful of all the people on this site as each individual writer is entitled to their own opinion, style, and path to creativity.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Blog Archive

Followers