Skip to main content

Hungry For Poetry

This week, I am hungry for poems about food. Food is such a universal topic to explore.  I have chosen a couple of poems from an unpublished anthology. 

These poems take a deliberatly irreverant look at the menu. We all have food experiences -some wierd, some wonderful. Here are  two poems to nibble on as an entree. 

Bon Appetit! 







ALL YOU CAN EAT


There’s a sign above the door

At the Maggoty Cat Café

Stating, if you can eat the menu

-Then you don’t have to pay.


The servings are substantial

They make that very clear

The waiters guide you to your seat

As they grin from ear to ear.


They start with tuna eye balls

Then bring you chicken feet

Bird’s nest soup and frog’s legs

A gourmandiser’s treat.


Next up, they serve wasp crackers

And rattlesnake they’ve fried

They finish up with jellied eels

With a large serve of Spam on the side.


Alan j Wright








MAVIS DINES OUT


Mavis had a little lamb

Then,she ate some cakes

Some Shepherd’s Pie,

A jug of milk,

And a bag of jelly snakes.


The people in the café

All feared she’d explode

But, she let out a monster burp,

And landed on the road.


Alan j Wright

It is once again Poetry Friday and our host this week is Irene Latham at 'Live Your Poem.'  Irene ponders among other things, the rationale for the placement of the last poem in an anthology. Thought provoking...

 



Labels:

Comments

  1. Linda B17 November 2023 at 16:25

    How to resist the challenge at the Maggoty Cat Cafe, Alan? Be sure to read ALL the rules! The 2nd one, even funnier. That first line's double-meaning is hilarious! Thanks for the laughs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright18 November 2023 at 13:14

      So glad these words brought some laughs with them, Linda.

      Delete
  2. Tracey Kiff-Judson18 November 2023 at 01:53

    Alan, these are so fun! Food is always a great topic. I enjoyed the clever ending of Mavis’s experience. I think I may have actually eaten at The Maggoty Cat Café.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright18 November 2023 at 13:15

      Thank you Tracey. And you're right about food being a great topic.

      Delete
  3. Sarah Grace Tuttle18 November 2023 at 03:13

    These are really fun poems-- thanks for the smile and for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright18 November 2023 at 13:15

      My pleasure, Sarah. Smiles are always welcome.

      Delete
  4. Irene Latham18 November 2023 at 03:40

    Mavis had a little lamb. Love! And I know a kid or two whou would howl over the Maggoty Cat Cafe. What fun! Thanks for sharing. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright18 November 2023 at 13:16

      Thanks Irene. It's fun to be a little irreverant now and then.

      Delete
  5. Rose Cappelli18 November 2023 at 09:01

    Thanks for the chuckles Alan! Delightful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous18 November 2023 at 21:56

    Yes! Bring on the silly. Oh, my goodness...I needed these giggles. Thank you, Alan. These are great.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 November 2023 at 09:31

      The gigg;es de;iver. That pleases me immensely. All writers hope to evoke a response.

      Delete
  7. jama19 November 2023 at 02:54

    Love these poems!! I can imagine kids laughing hysterically at them. Only one reservation: Spam shouldn't be served up with those other icky"delights." Those of us from Hawaii love Spam, eat it often, and consider it an essential dietary staple. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 November 2023 at 09:33

      Thank you Jama. I'm afraid I have a quite different view of Spam. It derives childhood expereinces with the dreaded stuff in a tin.

      Delete
  8. Tabatha19 November 2023 at 09:01

    Haha, Mavis! She just needed to let a little air out. What would Mavis think of the Maggoty Cat Cafe? Maybe they would have met their match. Thanks for the chuckles, Alan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 November 2023 at 09:34

      Some interesting speculations there, Tabatha. Glad to deliver some chuckles.

      Delete
  9. Carol Varsalona20 November 2023 at 00:03

    Mavis' experience with food is hilarious. This reminds me of the hotdog contest fellows who eat until they win. Thanks for the laugh.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Patricia Franz20 November 2023 at 05:17

    Alan, I wish this anthology were published! So much fun in the twists of reading these two. Would love to share this kind of poem collection with my grandkids.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 November 2023 at 09:38

      I wish this anthology could find a publisher too, Patricia. Poetry publication in Australia provides thin pickings, unfortunately. Many publishers openly discourage it.

      Delete
  11. Michelle Kogan20 November 2023 at 05:48

    These are wonderful Alan, love your "A gourmandiser’s treat."—What a fun word! MAVIS DINES OUT reminds me of a Shel Silverstein poem, and what fun he would have illustrating it, thanks for all the smiles! ☺️

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 November 2023 at 09:40

      Thank you for your kind response, Michelle. Your comparison places my words in rare company. Glad to bring on smiles.

      Delete
  12. Anastasia Suen20 November 2023 at 08:59

    What fun, Alan! "she let out a monster burp, / And landed on the road" is such a great ending!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Alan j Wright20 November 2023 at 09:41

    Thank you, Anastasia. Glad you liked the ending. A lot of fun was had in the making of these poems.

    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