dining out with marilyn singer

#13 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2011.

Marilyn at her home in Connecticut.

I’m thrilled to be rolling out the green carpet today to welcome the one and only Marilyn Singer, winner of the 2010 Cybils Poetry Award for her ingenious and innovative book, Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse (Dutton, 2010)!

Some of you may be familiar with one of Marilyn’s older titles, Footprints on the Roof: Poems About the Earth (Knopf, 2002), in which she celebrates the beauty, power, joy and wonder of our terrestrial home. An avid nature lover, she embraces phenomena both large and little with a keen eye, unending curiosity and an open heart.

“Dining Out” is the perfect contribution to our poetry feast. I love the ingenuous gratitude expressed in this delightful paean to biodiversity, the cycle of life, and global interdependency. The open ended free verse form gives us the opportunity to pause and reflect, as we taste each word and savor its meaning. Love the feeling of personal connection, harmony and wholeness.

Marilyn: I remember thinking about how little attention we pay to where our food and drink come from and how joyful it feels when we realize that, yes, we are eating and drinking the earth.

yadavop/flickr

DINING OUT
by Marilyn Singer

Each day I eat the earth

I drink the rain

They taste celery-bitter

watermelon-sweet

Their flavor

subtle

bold

is stored

in every grain of rice

in every stalk of wheat

in every root

leaf

shoot

harvested in Chile

or in China

or at Fanelli’s farm

Each day I eat the earth

I drink the rain

And my tongue

is never bored

schwaen/flickr

To enhance the nourishment afforded by her poem, Marilyn invites us to share her love for good food, prepared simply. Many of us already frequent our local farm markets, enjoy growing our own fruits and vegetables, and/or advocate Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). It does make a difference when we know where our food comes from — there’s nothing more delicious, nutritious and satisfying than fresh, seasonal produce, and when it comes to salads, the possibilities are endless.

A recent lunch included mesclun, romaine, pepper jack cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, cippolini onions, and avocado. Yum!

Marilyn: I like visiting farms and seeing fruits and vegetables growing. I don’t eat things with feet, but I do eat plenty of the things THEY eat. Here’s one of my favorite lunches:

In a bowl, put a serving of mesclun or a mixture of lettuce (romaine or Boston), radicchio, and endive. Add canned fish (which don’t have feet) such as tuna, mackerel or trout in olive oil. Then mix in whatever in the pantry takes your fancy—canned mandarin oranges, canned artichoke hearts, pickled onions, olives, avocado slices, dried cranberries or cherries, or slices of fresh apple, mango, or other fruit. I don’t add dressing—the oil in the fish is enough—but you could squeeze some lemon juice over the salad.

Some good bread and a cup of tea on the side, and voila—a delicious, healthy, and earthy meal!
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Award-winning author and poet Marilyn Singer writes picture books, short stories, fairy tales, fantasies, realistic novels for children and young adults, nonfiction, and mysteries, but enjoys writing poetry most of all. She’s published about 90 books, including 20 poetry collections, which have received such accolades as the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Honor Award (Creature Carnival), ALSC Notable Book (Central Heating), and NCTE Notable Book (Turtle in July). Besides the 2010 Cybils Award, Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse, has been showered with a boatload of other honors: Horn Book Fanfare List, NYPL Best 100 Children’s Books, Booklist Editor’s Choice, Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Books of 2010, and Washington Post Top 15 Children’s Books of 2010, among others.

Born in the Bronx, Marilyn currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, and Washington, Connecticut, with her husband Steve and lots of animals: their standard poodle, a cat, two collared doves, and a starling named Darling. She enjoys ballroom/Latin dancing, dog training, reading, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, playing computer adventure games, and going to the movies and the theatre. She’s also a major Star Trek fan.

Recent books: Tallulah’s Tutu (Clarion, 2011), Twosomes: Love Poems from the Animal Kingdom (Knopf, 2010).

Coming Soon: What is Your Dog Doing? (Atheneum, June 2011), A Full Moon is Rising (Lee & Low, May 2011).

Marilyn also co-hosts Poetry Blasts at various conferences with Barbara Benco. Her official website is here.

♥ I highly recommend this Reading Rockets video interview, because Marilyn discusses her early influences, offers suggestions about how to share poetry in the classroom, and reads several poems from Mirror Mirror. Great way to celebrate National Poetry Month!

♥ Check out this post at The Miss Rumphius Effect, where Marilyn talks about Footprints on the Roof.

♥ Marilyn’s poem, “A Stick is an Excellent Thing,” was recently featured as part of GottaBook’s 30 Poets/30 Days this month.