Out comes the blanket, the tea, and the munchies...

[jjhunter]

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

Comments

[untonuggan]

Found this poem this week and really enjoyed it. It was...timely, and reminded me of some family patterns in my own tree...

Patrimonial Recipe

I swore never to wear my father's mask.
Yet I meticulously peel and cut tomatoes.
Crush garlic. Pluck basil bent
low in observance. One
by one. Push them off the plank.
Into the fervid blonde of olive oil.
Salt. Pepper. Dash of sugar.
Then I sit down at the table.
Yell at my children for being children.
Ignore my wife--her voice:
the steam of boiling water.
And wait for the perfect consistency.
Al dente. The callous core that weeps
when overcooked.

- Daniele Pantano

From Poets Without Borders 2

[raze]

Ooh! I love this. Such vivid imagery, and do you feel like you can just SMELL this meal when you read it?

[untonuggan]

Totally!

[spiralsheep]

The use of one image expanded into a whole current scene and then past history works well (although my olive oil has always been green so that made me double-take "blonde" as an incongruity with my experience, heh). Thank you for sharing.

[untonuggan]

Thanks for appreciating. This poem makes me want tomato sauce, but also kind of dread it...

[ashestosnow]

Oh, this is a nice one. The blending of what we would ordinarily consider to be harmless, mundane actions with the undercurrent of violent imagery-- it's a potent technique, one I've used myself (with the text and subtext of gardening and war, respectively), and enjoyed when I did so.

Thank you for this.

[untonuggan]

Thanks for reading. ^_^ And mealtimes can so often turn violent, can't they?