FOLLOW THE RECIPE: Poems about Imagination, Celebration, and Cake by Marilyn Singer

words by Marilyn Singer,
art by Marjorie Priceman

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Christie at Wondering and Wandering for Roundup. Is it really the last Poetry Friday of National Poetry Month? How did this happen? Sigh.

I'm delighted today to welcome Marilyn Singer to Live Your Poem to talk about her (delicious!) new book.  As is my tradition for author interviews, I've provided Marilyn with four simple prompts. Take it away, Marilyn!

The delicious:

MS: As you might guess, a book entitled Follow the Recipe: Poems about Imagination, Celebration, and Cake (Dial, 2020) was inspired by the delicious. My husband, Steve Aronson, and I were in a restaurant in Howard Beach, NY. We’d just had a delightful time birdwatching at Jamaica Bay, and we were ready for a good meal. At an Italian restaurant, we ordered a dish we’d never had before—pasta e piselli, a simple and yummy combination of pasta and peas. While we were eating, an interesting idea struck me. I said to Steve, “Hmm, I wonder if a book of poems about recipes would work? Not just food recipes, but other kinds of recipes?” Steve knows that such ideas are dangerous—once they take hold, I can’t stop myself from doing something with them. That one took hold fast! The first poem I wrote was “recipe for patience” and it is about shelling peas.

At yet another delicious lunch, I mentioned the concept to my editor, Lucia Monfried, and she loved it. I wrote a bunch more poems and she accepted the manuscript. But she wanted more poems…which perhaps leads to the difficult…

The difficult:

MS: I’d already written a lot of poems and I wasn’t sure I had it in me to write more—and, I mean, like six or so more. But after some relaxation and refreshment (some of Steve’s good cooking—he’s the main chef in our house), I did write more. All of the poems in the book include mentions of food, sometimes metaphorically. Lucia suggested that they go from concrete to more abstract. So they start with “recipe for a good recipe” through poems such as “recipe for a poem” and end with “recipe for celebration.”

One of the poems is a reverso, a form I created for Mirror Mirror (Dutton, 2010), illustrated by Josée Masse. It’s a poem with two halves. You read the first half down, then the same lines in reverse order, with changes only in punctuation and capitalization, and each half says something different. In Follow the Recipe, my reverso is a recipe for science.

Another difficult thing was finding the right illustrator for the book. It definitely took a while. But then Lucia suggested Marjorie Priceman, and I was thrilled. I love her work and I love what she did with our book. She used collages to make it seem like an old beloved book of recipes, perhaps one passed down among generations. I think it’s fabulous!

It also took us a while to come up with the title—and it usually does. LOL!

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More Marilyn responses below! But first... please enjoy this poem from the book (posted with permission from the publisher):

words by Marilyn Singer, art by Marjorie Priceman

Recipe for Endurance

Think of a time before blenders and mixers,

electric fixers.

Think of a time before microwaves, stoves,

when their wasn't sliced bread, only freshly baked loaves.

Keep stirring the pot.

Picture the chance to strengthen a limb

without going to Gym.

Think of porridge or pudding or maybe risotto

back in the day and use this as your motto.

Lots of things change. Some do not.

Think of endurance - you still need it a lot.

And keep stirring the pot.

- Marilyn Singer

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The unexpected:

MS: I think pretty much any idea for a book is unexpected. It’s one of the surprises of being a writer. Some ideas don’t turn into full manuscripts. Some manuscripts don’t turn into books. When they do, it’s definitely an unexpected delight. And if they actually sell a lot of copies, that’s really unexpected. Heh.


Anything else:

MS: I hope people will enjoy the book and perhaps try writing their own recipe poems on a variety of topics. I also hope everyone will enjoy some cake—as well as sharing it together, in the near future.

Thank you, Marilyn, for visiting today!

Readers, please check out this book. And maybe write a recipe poem??? That's what I did. :) It was inspired by a friend who sent me a (Montana) sunset poem earlier this week to cheer me up on after a sad day. So much thoughtfulness in the world right now... I'm so so grateful. Truly, it's been tough. We'll get through it... we will, we will!

Recipe for a Sunset

sky

and more sky

mountain

or beach

birds,

breeze

a hand to hold

maybe a dog

all the colors

singing

a place

to be still

to lean

into the world

together

- Irene Latham