A Sweet Ending to "Playing with Your Food Poems" Week

"Summer" (1573) by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

I've had food on my mind this week thanks to Rebecca Herzog's invitation to write a poem about a food that you feel is most deserving of its own national day. If there's one thing I've learned reading more than 1500 DMC poems over the last 5+ years, it's that food is always a popular subject!

So what did I do? I dubbed this "playing with your food poems" week at Today's Little Ditty and shared daily food-themed poems from this month's "Words at Play" padlet. Kim Norman's "Pecan't" was featured on Monday. (Enjoy National Pecan Day next year on April 14th.). On Tuesday, David McMullin treated us to "Papa Slime". (Sign me up for National Guacamole Day next year on September 16th!) Tabatha Yeatts' "Rosemarried" was featured on Wednesday. (Did you know National Herb Day is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of May?) And on Thursday, we enjoyed Cindy Breedlove's "Talking Turkey." The national day for turkey-feasting? Everybody knows that! (Time to stock up on pumpkin, squash, and stuffing, folks.)

"These are not the gourds you're looking for."

Today I'll be closing out our week of food ditties with three poems that appear in The Best of Today's Little Ditty 2017-1018.

Purchase your paperback or ebook copies HERE, or contact me if you'd like
one signed by me and Miranda (I have a few extra).

The first poem I'd like to share is Bridget Magee's excellent response to the "Personified Feeling Poems" challenge offered by Jeannine Atkins in February 2017.

Lisa Yarost

FRENCH FRIES WITH A SIDE OF OH MY 

Embarrassment squeezes between Julio and me
at the lunch table.
The ketchup packet feels
the pressure,
bursting in such a way
that Julio wears
the flush of my cheeks
for the rest of the day.

          – Bridget Magee, © 2017

Why of course there's a National French Fries Day! Mark July 13th on next year's calendar.


Next we have Rebecca Herzog's sweet response to the May 2017 challenge, in which Melissa Manlove asks us to compare writing (or a book) to something else.

B.B.

SLURPEE

Grab a cup
So excited

Top it off
Mind ignited

Great big sip
Tale united

Big brain freeze
Uninvited

Wince in pain
Muse indicted

Shake it off
All doubt blighted

Push on through
ending sighted

One last swig
Scribe delighted

                    – Rebecca Herzog

As you might have guessed, July 11th is Free Slurpee Day at 7-Eleven! Maybe not an official "national day," but as good a reason as any to celebrate, no?


Finally, when J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen challenged us to write an epitaph poem in February 2018, Robyn Hood Black pulled this clever confection seemingly out of nowhere:

owlpacino

EPITAFFY

Pulled and stretched
in twists and turns -
picky permutation.

A chomp.  A chew.
The End. Of You.
(Sticky situation….)

                    – Robyn Hood Black

Yep. National Taffy Day is May 23rd on the 2020 calendar.


So there you have it. Although I would have liked to share a poem about a food that deserves a national day, apparently all seven of the food poems I've featured this week already have their own special days! Sheesh.

And now I'm hungry. Breakfast, anyone?

aulia.m

Be a good egg and join us, won't you?

zhouxuan12345678

If not a food poem with words at play, any ol' wordplay poem will do. Read Kate O'Neil's spotlight interview for more details, add your poem to the padlet, and stay tuned for next Friday's wrap-up celebration!

Many thanks to everyone who dropped by to help me celebrate the release of The Best of Today's Little Ditty 2017-2018 last week! I appreciated all of your kind congratulatory messages (and so did Miranda). Today I'm both touched and honored that Kimberly Hutmacher is showcasing the book and my poem "Don't Ask a Hopkinsaurus" at Kimberly Hutmacher Writes.

As previously mentioned, "Slurpee" poet Becky Herzog is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup. She's got more food poems and a smorgasbord of other poetry goodies at Sloth Reads.

A Dirty Kitchen Secret

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but today is Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day.  Trust me, it's true.  Would I be so cruel as to make something like that up?

Did you know, most Americans only clean their refrigerators once or twice a year?  (All together now: "Eeeeuw!")  This is according to an article in the Wall Street Journal-- a source renowned for its housecleaning expertise, or so I've heard.

The time has come, my fellow Americans.  Today's the day!  You want to make room for all of those turkey and pumpkin pie leftovers, don't you?

So in honor of the occasion, today's little ditty has transformed the aforementioned article, aptly titled "Why Won't Anyone Clean Me?", into a "found poem"-- one that takes words and phrases from an existing text and refashions them to create something new.  I've been wanting to try my hand at a found poem for some time now.  Notwithstanding the pungent odors and harmful bacteria, it was fun.


     A Dirty Kitchen Secret

     Forgotten in a corner,

     he didn’t notice

     the surface tension,

     the “ick” factor,

     bubbling up

     around the perimeter

     like spilled soda from a can.

     Good intentions

     allowed to ripen

     “out of sight, out of mind”

     until what ensued

     was chaos, all levels

     of refrigerator nastiness.

     Soda in the crisper,

     milk in the door,

     leaks from raw meat,

     dog licking the bottom shelf, 

     no clue what to do

     with the special

     cheese compartment,

     and high-tech solutions

     thwarted by consumers

     who try to salvage

     old salad dressing.

       © 2013 Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. All rights reserved.

Jama Rattigan, our favorite foodie with a heart of gold, is serving up today's Poetry Friday roundup with a cup of tea and an apple pumpkin walnut muffin.  Seriously. Yum.  You'll find her at Jama's Alphabet Soup.

...Mortimer???

Who's up for putt-putt?

Welcome to Miniature Golf Week at Today's Little Ditty!  Didn't know it was Miniature Golf Week?  Neither did I until Laura Shovan enlightened me, bless her heart.  Actually she just told me about Miniature Golf Day, which is TOMORROW people-- get your putt on!  Miniature Golf Week was entirely my doing.  Laura was the featured poet in Limerick Alley this past Tuesday, starting us off with a delightfully goofy, golf-related ditty.  But now I'm taking that ball and running with it... well, actually whacking at it with a club and hoping for the best.

Today's little ditty draws upon memories of our own family mini golf outings, when my children were but wee munchkins with nothing to lose but their competitive spirit.
 

Golf Day

I pick a club that’s just my size

and ball so bright it hurts my eyes,

then place it on the perfect spot

to give that ball a great big swat!

Swing once… a miss.

Swing twice… just air.

The third time, with a bit more care…

Going

              going

                            going…

                                          THWACK!

                                      It hits the wall,

                             starts

              rolling

back.

Oh no you don’t!

I won’t be beat.

Don’t need the club,

I’ll use my feet

to kick

              and chase you

                                        to the hole….

                                                                 At last

                                                                 that ball

                                                                 drops

                                                                 i

                                                                 n

                                                                 t

                                                                 h

                                                                 e

                                                                 bowl.

My da says, “That’s not how it’s done,”

but he’s just sore because I won.

© 2013 Michelle Heidenrich Barnes.  All rights reserved.

Tabatha Yeatts holds the score card today at The Opposite of Indifference, so check out all the players in the Poetry Friday roundup.  Mini pencils for all!

Limerick Alley: Laura Shovan

Although some of you are still recuperating from last Friday, here we are, back in the Alley with another limerick.  I wouldn't normally post two limericks within a few days of each other, but today is special.  It's special in two ways, actually.  First and foremost, it's special because of the inspiring person and poet I am lucky enough to feature today: Laura Shovan.

Over the past few months, I've gotten to know Laura through our interactions on Poetry Friday and the aspects of her life that she reveals on her blog, Author Amok.  But when I visited Laura's website to dig up a little more about her, I was pleasantly surprised at what I found.  Besides being an author and very cool, down-to-earth person, Laura is a children's poetry advocate as well.  Her alter ego is the popular Mrs. Poems, who delights in teaching poetry workshops in elementary, middle, and high schools throughout Maryland.  In 2010, she was awarded the inaugural Clarinda Harriss Poetry Prize, and word on the street has it that she's never turned down a limerick challenge either!

Laura is also the emissary of wacky holidays, which is the second reason why today is special.  Did you know that this Saturday, September 21st, is Miniature Golf Day?  No?  I didn't either.  But thanks to Laura, now I do, and you do too.  What's more, we're going to one-up that at Today's Little Ditty and make this Miniature Golf Week, ha HA!

So without further ado, here is Laura's Miniature Golf Day limerick:

                   My Day-Glo green ball just got stuck

                   in the throat of a big concrete duck.

                   If I reach down its bill,

                   knock my ball down the hill,

                   I might find years of Mini Golf muck.

                   © 2013 Laura Shovan.  All rights reserved.

Lilliput Gooney

This little ditty may have put Lilliput Gooney on edge, but I think it's just ducky!  

Thank you so much for visiting Limerick Alley, Laura, and for quacking us up with today's little ditty.

If you would like to join in the fun and have a limerick featured here in the future, please contact me at Michelle (at) MichelleHBarnes (dot) com, or by commenting below.