Thursday, February 23, 2017

Poems for Peace / Comfort Food Poems

Peace Postcards!
Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Karen Edmisten for Roundup. (While Karen is expecting snow, we've been enjoying super-warm weather! 77 degrees -- and the azaleas and tulip trees are in bloom!) I am posting early because I will be away from my desk tomorrow.

All this month I've been participating in the World Peace Poetry Postcard Project. That means I've been writing a poem a day and also receiving peace-full postcards. What a great project! Many thanks to Carla Shafer for organizing us. It's been fun and inspiring.
While I am not able to share the poems I've received without the senders' permission, I did want to share a few that I've written.... all these happen to be on the theme of comfort food. :)

Peace is a Sweet Potato Pie

cloud-topped
creamy sunshine
custard

scented with
a pinch of nutmeg
and allspice

it comes tucked
in a buttery,
flaky crust

to rest warm
and pillowy
on your tongue

it tastes
like gratitude

mmmmmmmmmm

- Irene Latham
(This poem was original titled "Peace is a Pumpkin Pie," after a photo, and I was thinking Thanksgiving, which explains the end... but then I realized the internal rhyme of "sweet" and "peace," and so I dumped the pumpkin for sweet potato!)

Peace in a Coffee Cup

Warm brown universe
frothed and creamed –
Welcome, it says.
Anything can happen,
anything can be!

- Irene Latham
(I'm actually a tea drinker, and really need to write a "Peace in a Tea Cup" poem... but I was working off a picture prompt.)

Like Peace for Chocolate

If only it came
foil-wrapped
with a creamy
center –

I'd take a bite
and you'd take a bite

and for an instant
all our struggles
and opinions,

our this-is-me-this-is-you
battlelines

would turn dark,
                bittersweet
                             milky

and then even that
would disappear

leaving our mouths
soft
and thick with
                         hope

- Irene Latham
(Someone asked me recently about my chocolate habit, so I'll share it here. I eat chocolate every day. I love those little Dove chocolates with the messages. My Valentine always gives me Godiva chocolates for Valentine's Day. I'll eat any sort, but if I was on a deserted island, just a nice piece of plain dark chocolate would be a dream! I'm also fond lately of Trader Joe's "no sugar added" dark chocolate bars. This doesn't mean "no sugar." It means exactly what it says: no sugar ADDED. Somehow this makes me feel better about eating it!)

What comfort food would you compare peace to?

22 comments:

  1. I love these, Irene, especially "Pease is a Sweet Potato Pie." Your poems bring comfort!

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  2. Comfort food! What a great use of extended metaphor. i esepcially like the losing lines; "soft
    and thick with
    hope"
    I could taste the chocolate and the peace.

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  3. I've been having a tough few weeks, so I have happily devoured your comfort food words! Some dark chocolate, a steaming cup of tea, and OK, I'll have some pie too, twist my arm! ;-)

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  4. I am an ardent chocolate lover, too, Irene. I love your third poem, not just for its title but for its middle stanzas (#3-6) and how its provides hope.

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  5. Well I love each one, and like that you changed to sweet potato pie. It fits in my mind better, plus the words as you said. But I love coffee, so "Warm brown universe" will stay with me now. I take chocolate each week to share at the bookstore. People seem delighted to have a treat, with their books! Perhaps I would choose soup as a food for peace, everyone sitting together with their bowls, a calming thing to be full! Thanks, Irene.

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  6. These comfort food poems are wonderful! (I think I'll tuck the idea away as a prompt for next month's Slice of Life Challenge.) I especially like "Like Peace for Chocolate" with its sweet, hopeful ending. Thanks so much for sharing!

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  7. Cocoa beans were used as money by the Maya and Aztec because they were so valuable. Imagine if your money were chocolate and you were faced with poverty because you were a chocolate addict. And that was before people added sugar to it!

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  8. Beautifully done. Let's have a date. You bring the chocolate. I'll bring the tea.

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  9. So happy for another peek into your poems, Irene! I sent you mine earlier this week. Peace keep you.

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  10. Our big/tiny World must now be a slightly better place with these messengers of Peace floating through the postal zones. Thank you for participating. I'm going to follow the link & see about being on board, next time.

    Feel like I've been in a cozy kitchen with these poems, dear Irene.

    "Soft
    and thick with
    hope"

    gives me hope + goose bumps.


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  11. I love these. My favorite is the chocolate one. Now, where can I go find some chocolate today? If you ever make it to San Juan, check out the restaurant Casa Cortez. It's all about the chocolate!

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  12. Of course you know I'm all over these comfort food poems! Brava! Love them all and enjoyed hearing about your chocolate preferences. It's dark for me all the way, Valrhona being my absolute favorite.

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  13. Ummm! Food! Your poems made my mouth water, Irene! Thank you!

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  14. I love your comfort food poems for peace! Great theme! I don't do much for comfort foods lately - though Harney & Sons Cinnamon Sunset Tea (which tastes mildly sweet, but has no carbs) is my new evening cozy winter comfort.

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  15. Two squares of 86% dark for me. Every day. Keeps me happy, healthy and in a good mood. Love the poems. The coffee poem really gets me. I just love the whole experience of coffee...the universe of it, indeed.
    Thank you for the peace poems. What a wonderful project and challenge. Have a great week.

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  16. Delicious poems, Irene - I love the coffee one in particular...being a BIG coffee fan :)

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  17. Gah! That chocolate poem. My mouth now craves that creamy sweet feeling thick with hope.

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  18. Oh, Irene, I love all three of those and now I'm hungry. For a non-coffee drinker, you nailed it. (I take my daily coffee black, but I love a good, frothy, creamy cup too.) :) Your poems leave me with hope, and with Ghandi's thought to "be the change you wish to see in the world."

    And your 77 degrees sounds heavenly to me today. :)

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  19. Forgot to add: Yes to daily dark chocolate. :)

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  20. I love how you leave us with a taste of heart (gratitude, peace, and truce) in each of your luscious foody poems. I could develop a chocolate habit in a trice, but the burning question for me is, could I stop at one?

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  21. Yum...both the words and foods! I'm especially drawn to your chocolate poem (and chocolate of any variety.)

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  22. Years late to the party, I'll add my peace preference: a double chocolate Quest Protein Bar, which I have daily with my coffee. What a treat...they both give me moments of peace. As does this blog post. <3

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Your thoughts?