read write prompt #102: memory recipes
by Deb Scott
I was discussing food associations with a writer not long ago, about how she will always pair a certain food tasted for the very first time (she was very young) with her father’s funeral.
This week, let’s not just explore the taste and texture of food, but the associations we have about a particular food or dish. Any family gathering is ripe with opportunity: funerals, birthday parties, weddings, anniversaries. Any meeting where people you intimately know are munching, nibbling or feasting will do. Perhaps it’s the yearly occasion with a prescribed menu, and the sour-cream Jello mold, frightening in its vivid greenness that a grandmother insists you love. Perhaps it’s the first time you went to a ball game or the circus and tasted cotton candy, along with an odd smell (identified much later in life as alcohol) on your uncle’s breath.
Jot down five or six old or childhood memories, ones where you might have been confused or awed by the people or the circumstances. Recover or rediscover what was served as refreshment, nourishment. Let the people, place and food stuffs speak. Give voice to those particulars and let them take the point of view of the poem.
Still stuck? You might try a list poem or write a recipe and include the physical surroundings and any people required to support the scene, but make food the focus. Let it paint or point to the discoveries you made as you explored.
If you would like to take a different approach, one not so keenly tied to the experience of food but to food as an object in and of itself, check out the prompt Jill wrote in March about food.
Last but not least, here are a few poems for your reading pleasure:
Come back next week and share your experiences with this week’s poetry prompt in Thursday’s Get Your Poem On post, whether they involve food or not. 
 Deb Scott is community and news director for Read Write Poem. She is also co-managing the Read Write Poem Virtual Book Tour. In her other life she loves to cook and eat, and nibbles words to the bone. She blogs at Stoney Moss.
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Wear it loud, wear it proud! Display the Read Write Poem badge on your site. Just click here or on the image above to get the code! read write poem news- yes, yes, here’s another virtual book tour stop for ‘a walk through the memory palace’
February 6, 2010 | 11:37 amFind the latest tour stop for Pamela Johnson Parker’s debut collection, A Walk Through the Memory Palace at Jillypoet, Jill Crammond Wickham’s blog, where you can find an interview with Pamela that discusses how she creates manuscripts.
Previous stops include Daniel Romo at his blog, Peyote Soliloquies and James Brush at his blog, Coyote Mercury.
You can find all our plans for the tour here.
- the best of the web is in our ranks
February 6, 2010 | 11:35 amSarah J. Sloat’s poem,”Attending the Tasting” (published in The Literary Bohemian) has been selected for Best of the Web 2010. Congratulations, Sarah!
- another (w00t!) read write poem member on the joe milford poetry show
February 6, 2010 | 11:34 amOn the Joe Milford Poetry Show tomorrow (Feb. 6): W.F. Roby at 9 AM (PST). Find the show here!
Joe describes Will as a “great language poet and bad-ass.”
- ‘literary podcasting made simple with wordpress.com’
February 6, 2010 | 11:33 amDave Bonta has published a how-to article that might be of interest to WordPress users: “Literary Podcasting Made Simple with WordPress.com,” based on his and Beth Adams’ experience at Qarrtsiluni.
Thanks, Dave, for continuing to help make the community aware of technological resources that can expand our art.
- the latest (virtual) book tour stop for ‘a walk through the memory palace’
February 3, 2010 | 3:53 pmThe latest tour stop has been posted for Pamela Johnson Parker’s debut collection, A Walk Through the Memory Palace. Find out how Daniel Romo responded to the work at his blog, Peyote Soliloquies.
James Brush provided our first tour stop at his blog, Coyote Mercury.
You can find all our plans for the tour here.
- planning for napowrimo in april, and you are invited!
February 2, 2010 | 6:12 pmHello, hello dear Read Write Poem community members! We are in the planning stages for NaPoWriMo. (What? Is that a groan I hear, or an excited exclamation?)
We are planning another prompt-every-day for those folks who love to write a daily poem in April (which is, as most of you know, National Poetry Month in the United States — although there is an international following of writing poetry every day in April, too, so it is not just about the States).
Anyway! This is a call for prompts because we want to run your ideas, one every day, in April. So here’s what to do:
- Prompts must be no more than 250 words, and we will take the first 30 that we receive.
- Include “NaPoWriMo Prompt” in the subject line of your email as well as your username (e.g., the name you use when you log in) so we can match you up with your prompt and give you the link love.
- Email your submission (in the body of the email — no attachments please) to prompts (at) readwritepoem (dot) org!
We’ll let you know when we’ve got the 30, but don’t delay because it takes a lot of time to format the posts and we want to be ready come April Fools’ Day. Woohoo!
- new senior contributors at read write poem
February 2, 2010 | 11:51 amWe are thrilled to announce that Ren Powell and Dave Jarecki are moving into the senior contributor role at Read Write Poem. Both have been writing feverishly for the site, as well as providing ideas for content and for the community as a whole. In short, they make this site a more lively, and better, place.
Ren and Dave will fill the roles vacated by Carolee Sherwood and Jill Crammond Wickham, who have moved into the manager role.
Everyone please thank Ren and Dave for their hard work and commitment to Read Write Poem.
- rounding out the virtual book tour of sarah j. sloat’s ‘in the voice of a minor saint’
January 31, 2010 | 1:53 pmOur last stop on the Virtual Book Tour of Sarah J. Sloat’s In the Voice of a Minor Saint is with Ren Powell. Find Ren’s review at More Babel.
Joseph Harker provided our first stop in December, and you can find David Moolten’s review at Edible Detritus. David’s was followed by Dave Jarecki’s. Dave’s review is at his blog. Find Jill Crammond Wickham’s at Jillypoet: Mom Trying to Write.
In case you missed the introduction, we are (virtually) hosting Sarah J. Sloat’s In the Voice of a Minor Saint. For complete tour information, such as how you can get your own copy of the collection or how you can get involved in future tours, read this post.
- make your own book: get off the computer and onto the paper
January 30, 2010 | 4:19 pmBeth Adams has posted her latest project at The Cassandra Pages. “A Handmade Book” may not explicate all the details of bookbinding, but Beth shows readers the “Secret Belgian Binding.” It’s a beautiful as well as inspiring post.
If you would like more detailed instructions, Google “secret Belgian bookbinding” and find sites such as this one. Or look for a local book arts class for hands-on instruction.
As Beth says, ” … it did me good to get away from the computer and feel my hands at work!”
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http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/2009/07/xmas-in-july.html
Maybe not quite right for the theme but I’ve just found your blog and I thought I’d just post an oldie.
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Deb Scott replied:
November 20th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Hi Rinkly: Welcome & be sure to check out our About & Help tabs above, in the navigation bar. Links to poems are posted next Thursday. Be sure to repost then!
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that’s a good one! Hmmm, my uncle’s breath…!
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Deb Scott replied:
November 20th, 2009 at 10:15 am
There’s always an uncle with piquant breath, it seems!
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Dave Bonta replied:
November 21st, 2009 at 10:18 am
I fear I have become that uncle! (Well, at least I keep my nose hairs trimmed back.)
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Hi Deb,
I’ve just read through the your suggested reading pleasure. They are all inspiring; ‘Eating Together’ is wonderfully written.
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Deb Scott replied:
November 20th, 2009 at 10:17 am
I’m so glad you liked the reading, Derrick.
I’ve only recently come across by CD Wright and I want to read more from her.
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Great prompt Deb. Kool Aid comes to mind … lots and lots of Kool Aid. And meat, a lot of meat. Maybe I’ll write a poem about sugar and blood.
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Deb Scott replied:
November 20th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I can hardly wait to read it, Nathan!!
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I’ll try to write something new for next week (Though I’m sure I won’t be posting on Thursday! Would y’all consider moving the “get your poem on” post to Friday?), but in the meantime here’s an oldy. (Huh, it was for Poetry Thursday way back when.)
Lamb and Macaroni
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Deb Scott replied:
November 20th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Hi Tiel,
Hopefully everyone will make it a GYPO weekend and just party on longer rather than shorter.
(For those not in the States, next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the USA and people might be doing more holiday-related things rather than poetry. But then, maybe not.
Maybe poetry will give respite from too much of whatever is on your plate.)
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I love Kim Addonizio. So glad to see one of her poems in the examples. Mmmm. Yummmmm.
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Deb Scott replied:
November 20th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
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C.D. Wright’s work is so soulful – I’m glad you included her as an example.
I’m looking forward to working with this prompt – great choice!
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Deb Scott replied:
November 20th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Thanks, Zouxzoux. Do you have a recommendation for a particular book of hers?
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I’m trying to limit my poetic indulgence to one wordle a month. That’s like my square of dark chocolate in a diet of way to much prose that has to be written. But how can I resist a food poem? You’re tempting me to grab another chocolate square. We’ll see what next week brings.
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Deb Scott replied:
November 20th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Love the analogy!
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Oh, the reference to the uncle’s breath was very evocative, Deb. That line alone would make the beginning of a very good poem. I think I might try my hand at this one…. The food provides a concrete way to delve into some powerful emotions.
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Does Play-Doh count as food?
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Andre Tan replied:
November 20th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
It’s in the same food group as Dixie cups of dried, hardened paste!
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Deb Scott replied:
November 21st, 2009 at 9:51 am
If you make it count as food, it counts as food. (Play-Doh *and* hardened paste *and* mud-puddle dirt dirt patties.)
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Playing off the concept of “sense memory” is a GREAT idea for a prompt. Very cool, Deb!
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I just wrote a food related poem earlier! Not quite the same theme though. Hm. Will have to consider this!
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Ohhh the foodie in me loves this prompt! Should have fun!
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Don’t make me go back to cow tongue and deep fried sparrow…
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“Foodie” meets “a country food fair” might be my next all-consuming poem, with a side of grooming habits, of course!
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This prompt is tailor-made for tomorrow at our house. I’ll think about it while I make Triple Cranberry Sauce with the Secret Ingredient. (The Secret Ingredient is Grand Marnier and the cook reserves tasting privileges unto herself. . . )
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[...] you write about food associations or something else entirely? Was this week’s holiday (in the States) a prompt or an [...]
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