“I have made a lot of mistakes falling in love, and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them.” – Nora Ephron
“I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tuna fish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock.” – Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
“Food is so primal, so essential a part of our lives, often the mere sharing of recipes with strangers turns them into friends.” – Terri Guillemets
“The woman just ahead of you at the supermarket checkout has all the delectable groceries you didn’t even know they carried.” – Mignon McLaughlin
“[Breadbaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells… there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel, that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.” – M.F.K. Fisher
“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… the people who give you their food give you their heart.” – Cesar Chavez
Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting week at Prompt Nights. Paprika, cheddar cheese, tortilla chips and sour cream. It’s simple isn’t it, great ingredients make great food. Moreover, like poetry, it too is infused with passion. Yes! You guessed it! Tonight, I thought it would be interesting for us to write poems in the form of a recipe. Here I offer you three options. (1) You can either choose to create a unique recipe in form of a poem. (2) You can flirt a little with herbs and spices and use them to your advantage to express fierce emotion in a poem. (3) You can rebel and go all the way and write down a sizzling fiction piece. So, what are you waiting for? Gather your kitchen knives and prepare to create some magic! Previously written work is more than welcome. For further inspiration, please refer to the four amazing poems below:
Food in Travel
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
IF to her eyes’ bright lustre I were blind,
No longer would they serve my life to gild.
The will of destiny must be fulfilid,–
This knowing, I withdrew with sadden’d mind.
No further happiness I now could find:
The former longings of my heart were still’d;
I sought her looks alone, whereon to build
My joy in life,–all else was left behind.
Wine’s genial glow, the festal banquet gay,
Ease, sleep, and friends, all wonted pleasures glad
I spurn’d, till little there remain’d to prove.
Now calmly through the world I wend my way:
That which I crave may everywhere be had,
With me I bring the one thing needful–love.
Fame is a Fickle Food
by Emily Dickinson
Fame is a fickle food
Upon a shifting plate
Whose table once a
Guest but not
The second time is set.
Whose crumbs the crows inspect
And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the Farmer’s Corn–
Men eat of it and die.
Sonnet 75
by William Shakespeare
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As ‘twixt a miser and his wealth is found.
Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then bettered that the world may see my pleasure;
Sometimes all full with feasting on your sight,
And by and by clean starvèd for a look;
Possessing or pursuing no delight
Save what is had, or must from you be took.
Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
Or gluttoning on all, or all away.
The Health Food Diner
by Maya Angelou
The Health-Food Diner
No sprouted wheat and soya shoots
And Brussels in a cake,
Carrot straw and spinach raw,
(Today, I need a steak).
Not thick brown rice and rice pilaw
Or mushrooms creamed on toast,
Turnips mashed and parsnips hashed,
(I’m dreaming of a roast).
Health-food folks around the world
Are thinned by anxious zeal,
They look for help in seafood kelp
(I count on breaded veal).
No smoking signs, raw mustard greens,
Zucchini by the ton,
Uncooked kale and bodies frail
Are sure to make me run
to
Loins of pork and chicken thighs
And standing rib, so prime,
Pork chops brown and fresh ground round
(I crave them all the time).
Irish stews and boiled corned beef
and hot dogs by the scores,
or any place that saves a space
For smoking carnivores.
So pick up a pen and lets begin! As always the prompt will remain open the entire week so that everyone can write according to their own pace and time. Please click on the blue widget below. When it opens be sure to click on “add your link.” Now skip the blanks and proceed directly to “try here” written at the end in small font. It will direct you on how to link your poem. Please visit other Poets and do comment on their poems. Have fun ❤
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