Friday, March 26, 2010

Poetry Friday -- Cake

three-layer from-scratch chocolate cake by Mary Lee Hahn...so's the photo

From CHOCOLATE CAKE
by Michael Rosen
(the whole poem is here)

...you know how the icing on top
is all shiny and it cracks as you
bite into it,
and there's that other kind of icing in
the middle
and it sticks to your hands and you
can lick your fingers
and lick your lips
oh it's lovely.
yeah.

Anyway,
once we had this chocolate cake for tea
and later I went to bed
but while I was in bed
I found myself waking up
licking my lips
and smiling.
I woke up proper.
'The chocolate cake.'
It was the first thing
I thought of.

I could almost see it
so I thought,
what if I go downstairs
and have a little nibble, yeah?

It was all dark
everyone was in bed
so it must have been really late
but I got out of bed,
crept out of the door

there's always a creaky floorboard, isn't there?

Past Mum and Dad's room,
careful not to tread on bits of broken toys
or bits of Lego
you know what it's like treading on Lego
with your bare feet,

yowwww
shhhhhhh

downstairs
into the kitchen
open the cupboard
and there it is
all shining.

So I take it out of the cupboard
put it on the table
and I see that
there's a few crumbs lying about on the plate,
so I lick my finger and run my finger all over the crumbs
scooping them up
and put them into my mouth.

oooooooommmmmmmmm

nice.

Then
I look again
and on one side where it's been cut,
it's all crumbly.

So I take a knife
I think I'll just tidy that up a bit,
cut off the crumbly bits
scoop them all up
and into the mouth

oooooommm mmmm
nice.

Look at the cake again.

That looks a bit funny now,
one side doesn't match the other
I'll just even it up a bit, eh?



You know the rest, right? Go ahead and admit it, you've straightened up your share of cakes in your life!!! :-)

Today, the first day of spring break, in between reading poetry posts, I'll be baking this cake for a friend's birthday party tonight. The roundup is at The Drift Record this week.

20 comments:

  1. Okay, I'm having trouble typing because I keep drooling and licking my computer screen. Fabulous poem, and you're baking another cake today? *jealous* Maybe you need someone to taste it just to make sure it's perfect for the party? or lick the bowl? Huh?

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  2. Jama, someday I hope to bake this cake for YOUR birthday! As it stands, I make two in March, and one in May, July and August, but I've never had one for MY birthday...because I'm the one who bakes it! That will change this coming December. I've got a "landmark" birthday coming up, and I'm going to have my cake and eat it, too, by golly by gum!

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  3. Oh. My. Does that look beyond good.

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  4. Anonymous9:36 AM

    I will take a piece of that with coffee, please. Don't think it would send well. I love the accompanying poem. Our spring break starts after school today!

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  5. Love this poem and the photo left me hungry this morning!

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  6. LOVE THAT. What a wonder is cake. What a perfect tribute from Rosen!

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  7. In a fit of solidarity with my husband, I gave up sweets for Lent. Reading this rich poem, I felt as if I were cheating!

    I have to bake my own cake, too, but since my daughter's b-day is the day before mine, we share. :)

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  8. Anonymous4:13 PM

    Oh my, that cake looks sooo good!! It's about 4 p.m. right now, perfect time for tea and cake, or tea and a wonderful poem such as this. Thanks!

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  9. Delicious looking cake. You have many talents.

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  10. My birthday is coming up VERY soon--next month actually. I was hoping you'd make me an Oreo cheesecake but I changed my mind today. Now, I want one of these:-)

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  11. Okay, Franki, there's a cake with your name on it for April!!

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  12. What a wonderful poem and a great site. I would like to use some of the posts on my site as examples of great books for kids.
    http://www. readingfrombirth.com and http://www.julieashtontownsend.com
    Is that okay?

    mail@julieashtontownsend.com

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  13. Jewels, you are more than welcome to LINK to our posts, but please don't copy our content on your site. Thanks!

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  14. I should not be reading this. I've gone over a month without chocolate.

    I am trying to hold out for little longer and this poem isn't helping

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  15. The chocolate cake looks delicious! I loved the poem, thanks for sharing it with me. Now, I'm off to have a snack!

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  16. Is drool on one's computer screen a bad thing? OMG, ML!! That cake looks amazing! More importantly, because of the big section missing, it looks like it is well loved by someone!!

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  17. My oldest daughter loves to sneak down for cake. She hasn't used the, "I was straightening cake story,' yet. The cake looks amazing!!!! My new life goal is to eat a piece of cake made by Mary Lee.

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  18. Love this! That is the best kind of "straightening up". I chuckled over the bit about stepping on legos too. Done my share of that and then some. Enjoy your spring break and your chocolate cake/cupcakes!

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  19. Anonymous6:47 PM

    Love it!

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  20. Oh yes, this is such a wonderful wonderful poem. One of my favourites as a kid myself and now my eldest also adores it. It's sort of folklore around our parts! Here's a link to our favourite chocolate cake:
    http://www.playingbythebook.net/2009/10/12/not-last-night-but-the-night-before

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