poetry potluck 2011

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

“Any healthy man can go without food for two days, but not without poetry.” ~ Charles Baudelaire, French poet (1821-1867)

Waiter, waiter! There’s a poet in my soup!

Actually, there are 19 poets in my soup!

And you know what? I don’t mind one little bit, because they’re all here for the 2nd Annual Alphabet Soup Poetry Potluck, a virtual feast of poems and recipes lasting throughout the month of April.

I must confess that when I invited these poets over, I never dreamed they’d turn out to be so wild and wooly. Some arrived by helicopter, some sashayed right into the kitchen balancing lasagna pans or trays of cookies on their heads, and one of them even likes to juggle Meyer lemons to folk music! After sipping a little mimosa and munching on a few metaphors, they dove straight into the soup bowl and have been partying heartily ever since.

OH?

Not to worry. They’ve all agreed to dry off just long enough to share their poems and tease tempt you with their recipes in turn, beginning Monday. So, are you ready to party? Pick a beret and let the poetry celebration begin!

Menu of 2011 Alphabet Soup Poetry Potluck Poets (in no particular order):

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
Kate Coombs
Susan Taylor Brown
Heidi Mordhorst
Toby Speed
Jone MacCulloch
Diane Mayr
Carol Weis
JoAnn Early Macken
April Halprin Wayland
Irene Latham
Barbara Crooker
Marilyn Singer
Tabatha Yeatts
Jessica Swaim
Jane Yolen
Rebecca Kai Dotlich
Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
Kelli Russell Agodon

*thunderous applause*

I know, I know. Such a delicious line-up! What? They’re making you hungry? Please help yourself to a bit of this and a bit of that:

THE BANQUET
by John Mole

‘Grub first then ethics’ said Brecht
When the going was tough
As for many it always is
And fine words are never enough.

Presuming at least to offer
Food for the mind,
He wrote about hunger
Of a different kind.

What, despite the consoling
Banquet of art,
Can an empty belly
Say to a broken heart?

Poetry makes nothing happen
As Auden insisted;
Its flow is not water,
It can’t bake bread

Yet it measures out hope
In a global cup
And against all odds
Will not give up.

~ from Poetry on a Plate, edited by the Poetry Society (Salt Publishing, 2006)

oregon jess/flickr

QuintanaRoo/flickr

BIG POETRY GIVEAWAY!!

Once again this year, Washington state poet Kelli Russell Agodon is hosting a multi-blog poetry book giveaway at Book of Kells. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about new poets and to see what others are reading and publishing. Each participating blog is giving away two books; anyone can enter and you have the entire month of April to do so. Giveaway Guidelines and a list of participants can be found here.

Here’s what I’m giving away:

1) Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room by Kelli Russell Agodon (White Pine Press, 2010). This is Kelli’s third collection of poetry, winner of the White Pine Press Prize. Here, she “creates a delicate balance between the seriousness of life and a brilliant sense of playfulness. A book about anxiety, spirituality, and the various ways we correspond including letters, postcards, love notes, conversation, song, and prayer.” We’ll be sharing one of the poems from this book soon, along with Kelli’s soup recipe!

2) More by Barbara Crooker (C&R Press, 2010). This is Barbara’s latest collection; it includes “Ode to Olive Oil,” which I recently featured here. Sue Ellen Thompson said, “Rarely has a book of poems been as aptly titled as Barbara Crooker’s More. Propelled by her hunger for beauty and language, she flies in low over human experience, noticing every gesture, every flavor, every nuance of color and light. Whether she is pondering a spill of salt or stepping into a painting by Hopper, Crooker never for one second lets us forget what it is to be alive and how many ways we have been given to express our gratitude for this simple fact.” Stay tuned for another poem from this collection, along with a chocolate recipe!

For a chance to win both books, simply leave a comment at this post no later than midnight (EDT) April 30, 2011. Extra entries for blogging, Facebooking, or Tweeting about the giveaway. Open to anyone anywhere in the world, with or without a blog. If you are commenting as “Anonymous,” please leave contact information. If you prefer, you can also enter by email: readermail (at) jamakimrattigan (dot) com, with “Big Poetry Giveaway” in the subject line.

And now, since Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Wine is bottled poetry,” let’s raise our glasses in a toast: Happy Poetry Month!!

*clairity”/flickr

♥ Amy LV has the Roundup today at The Poem Farm.

“There is poetry in a porkchop to a hungry man.” ~ Philip Gibbs (NYT, 1951).

*Vegetable Bouquet from International Chefs Catering.

**Special thanks to Hugging the Coast for permission to use the Emily image!

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

It’s April, April, April!

What better ‘first poet’ for our Poetry Month celebration than one who’s named, “April”? The always exuberant April Halprin Wayland, whose personal tagline is “1/2 poet, 1/2 author, 1/2 not good at fractions,” brings her own special brand of energy and expansiveness to everything she does, whether writing, teaching, storytelling, fiddle playing, doodling, sun farming, hiking, campaigning for peace or collecting clouds. Her fascinating, adventure-filled life has provided oodles of inspiration for poems and stories, and her sunny outlook has certainly brightened up the alphabet soup kitchen. We thank her for kicking things off!

April: Poetry is a place where I clear the brush, rake the leaves, plant some violets, drag in an old log to sit on. Readers may not see the same things I see, or think the same things I was thinking when I wrote the poem, but they can sit next to me and breathe in the violets.

My book, GIRL COMING IN FOR A LANDING: A Novel in Poems (Knopf), based on my journals as a teen, is about a teen who writes poetry in secret; it includes tips to teen writers at the end. One poem is about waffles . . . and writing:

WAITING FOR WAFFLES
by April Halprin Wayland

The T.V. talks in the other room,
the ironing board stands, hands on hips,
in the middle of Great Aunt Ida’s kitchen
and I sit on the burgundy booth in my p.j.s as
Great Aunt Ida makes waffles.

I love pouring batter onto the waffle iron.
It’s like writing poems —
from puddles to patterns.

If I stare at the black light
willing it to warm to red,
it takes forever.

Just like writing. Sometimes I have to
not write
in order to write.

So I slide around
the vinyl booth seat
to look out her second story window
at the birds.

I am waiting
for waffles.

© 2004 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved.

Apparently, Myra Cohn Livingston was the one who suggested April write a collection of poems in the teen voice, and April says doing so set her free. Love that! And isn’t it so true about sometimes having to “not write” in order to write?

April: When my sister and I slept over at Grandma’s we’d make waffles. I remember her heavy waffle maker and the waiting, waiting, waiting for that red eye to light up. I think the waiting made them taste better. Yum! I wish I could say that Grandma used this Lemon Waffle recipe. But the truth is that after I wrote this poem, I searched for a good waffle recipe that did not use sugar (I don’t eat sugar), and found this wonderful one on a bed and breakfast site. (I love making pancakes with it, actually –)

I wrote the owners of the B&B, asking for permission to use the recipe; they were very kind, saying it was freely given to them and to pass it on — so I have!

*Behold perfect Meyer lemon specimen from April’s tree!*

Here in Southern California our lemon tree is overflowing with fragrant Meyer lemons. Meyer lemons have thin skins and are milder and sweeter than most lemons.

LEMON WAFFLES
(serves 4)

4 eggs, separated

3 tablespoons honey

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons grated lemon zest

1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 cup flour

In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks with the honey. Blend in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and butter, beating well. Blend in the milk and flour alternately. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into batter. Bake in prepared waffle iron until golden brown.

This batter can also be used to make lovely, light pancakes.

Jama’s note: Len and I really enjoyed these — light as lemony clouds, a delicate flavor, and no refined sugar. Definitely worth waiting for! ☺

————————————————————————————

April Halprin Wayland is a farmer turned folk musician turned author. Her newest picture book, NEW YEAR AT THE PIER: A Rosh Hashanah Story (Dial, 2010), won the Sydney Taylor Gold Medal awarded by the Association of Jewish Libraries. April’s work has been called “dazzling,” “honest, heartfelt, poignant,” and “utterly fresh and winning.” Her critically acclaimed novel in poems, Girl Coming in for a Landing (Yearling, 2004), her picture books, and her poetry have garnered numerous awards, including the Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor Award for Children’s Poetry, the Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry, and MommyCare’s Book of the Year.

She’s been an instructor in UCLA Extension’s Writers Program for over a decade and teaches workshops in schools all over the world. You can find her online at her official website and the Teaching Authors blog. Don’t forget to check out April’s Poem-a-Day Challenge poems throughout the month here. I especially love that whenever a member of her family has a birthday, April writes “Happy Birthday” in raisins in the kitchen, and she’s the only poet I know who once wrote “I Love You” in ketchup on a dinner plate. ♥