Skip to main content

Food News Poem

'Ideas exist in things.' 

 I heard that somewhere a long time ago and have never forgotten it. So, when I'm looking for ideas, I find it extremely useful to sit perfectly still and take a careful look around me. Today, as  I sat watching people eat in a favourite cafe of mine, I began to think about food. I must admit I like thinking about food. I love both eating and cooking. 

  I began to think more particularly about food back when I was a kid. Food I liked and food I avoided. I thought about some of the things people used to say about certain foods. Not all of which was true. A bit like 'fake news' we hear so much about these days.

 Eventually my thinking lead to wanting to write something down- It often does. Well, a poem began to develop in my head, so I took out my notebook and started writing. When I got home, I just had to continue preparing my poem. Here it is for you to digest.

Food News

Green jelly's made from cow's hooves
Spaghetti's made from worms
Bread is made from gluggy paste,fly dirt, grass
and germs
Beans are made from pond scum
Beetroot's monkey brains
And pumpkin's made from slimy stuff they fossick from the drains
Potato chips are just dried wax
They scrape from camel's ears
And peas are balls of hard green snot
That's been dried out for two years




Labels:

Comments

  1. Molly Hogan17 February 2017 at 22:16

    Thanks! Your poem started my day off with a laugh and taught me a delightful new word, "fossick". I also enjoyed reading about your thought and writing process. I'll definitely keep in mind your strategy of looking at things to generate ideas during next months Slice of Life challenge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright18 February 2017 at 10:05

      Thanks Molly. Glad you found something you might be able to use in your own writing process.

      Delete
  2. Bridget Magee18 February 2017 at 04:29

    Hee-hee! I'm not sure I can ever eat a potato chip again without thinking about camel's ear wax. Thanks for the smiles today, Alan, something we need more of everyday. =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright18 February 2017 at 10:04

      Thanks Bridget. Glad it made you smile. I was probably channeling the small boy inside me with this poem. Appealing to the gross side a little.

      Delete
  3. Alice Nine18 February 2017 at 10:11

    Intrigued by your quote "Ideas exist in things" ... and liked how you walked us through your thinking. But I'm not sure I want to "digest" your poem. Thanks for the laugh!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright18 February 2017 at 13:04

      Thanks Alice. Our process is important to share, particularly with our probationary poets. We must all find our way in the end though.

      Delete
  4. Leigh Anne Eck18 February 2017 at 11:24

    Yuck! I don't know if I can ever look at a potato chip the same way again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright18 February 2017 at 13:06

      Leigh Ann, all writers wish to evoke a response from their readers. Sorry about that.

      Delete
  5. Sally Murphy18 February 2017 at 12:17

    Blergh! Thanks for tha laugh, Alan, and for sharing your process.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright18 February 2017 at 13:09

      As you know Sally, process is important to each of us. Unique as well. Our young poets need to understand how the thinking and rehearsal goes. It is an investment in the words we hope will emerge.

      Delete
  6. Tara18 February 2017 at 12:39

    Well...I'm a bit put off food at the moment by your all too easy to imagine delicacies!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright18 February 2017 at 13:11

      Oh Tara, that's no good. Visualizing is clearly a double edged sword.

      Delete
  7. Mary Lee19 February 2017 at 00:13

    EW! I think you just put me off potato chips...which might actually be a good thing!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Alan j Wright19 February 2017 at 09:41

    A poet has to tell it like it is sometimes Mary. It serves to raise the awareness of consumers. Poets also like to have fun with words, which on this occasion is closer to the truth.

    ReplyDelete
  9. michelle kogan20 February 2017 at 05:07

    I think I just lost my appetite. There's a couple foods here that I eat and I'm glad I'm not having them today!
    I did enjoy learning about the definition of fossick!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Jone22 February 2017 at 16:16

    Oh how fun? Might I use with my Poetry Rocks students?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York.  I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...
20 comments
Read more

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. N...
26 comments
Read more

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

  This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully  @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant.  A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden...
14 comments
Read more