Poetry Friday -- Chocolate Cake

Abecedarian Cake Love

A
birthday
cake --
decadent,
elegant,
frosting
gobbed
high --
I
justify
knifing
loose
my
notch --
objectify
perfection,
qualify
restraint,
savor
tastes
until...
voicing
with
eXuberance:
YUMMY!
amaZing!

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

BIRTHDAY CAKE 

Measuring Spoons 
Our advice? 
Be precise. 

Kitchen Aid 
I stand… 
I mix, blend, 
whip, stir, knead… 
at your command. 

Cake Pans 
We’re fickle. 
Three layers stick 
whenever we pick. 

Violets on the Windowsill 
We choose 
purple for our blooms. 
You make the air go blue 
because of what the pans decided to do. 

Table 
Come sit. 
Unwind. 
Write a bit. 
Find 
the humor in all of it. 
Be resigned, 
start again. Don’t quit.


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Here are a couple of my chocolate cake poems from the past.

I baked Hubby's birthday cake last night. He wanted to help, so I let him prep the pans. Lesson learned: don't give away one of the key steps in the process, something that you know by feel and by experience, not by look. One layer stuck horribly. Another stuck a bit. 

I said a few choice words under my breath, but then I moved into "make lemonade" mode. I took the crumble layer, mixed it with a portion of the icing to make a globby cake-icing goo to put between the other two layers, and covered the whole thing with the rest of the icing. From the outside, it looks like my classic from-scratch chocolate cake. I'm sure it will taste just fine. I'm wondering if this wonky middle layer might become the new normal. Stay tuned. 

Moral of the story -- don't get mad...INNOVATE!

Renee has today's Poetry Friday Roundup at No Water River.

Baking Bread

photo via unsplash

Baking Bread (or Life in The Modern World)

Why can't it be easy for once?
Instead, it starts off sticky
and keeps getting stickier
until necessary intervention.

Slow down.
Slower,
less speed,
deep breaths.

Suddenly, stickier becomes smoother
and by now you should know better --
difficult hides behind a screen of pliable
and soft is a precursor to crunchy.

Next comes growth.
A time of pure yeasty optimism
until the smashing and scraping
brings everything back into perspective

and before you know it
the boundaries are set
the heat is applied
the outcome revealed.

There is no such thing as easy,
only repetition after repetition.
Savor the warmth, the freshness.
Then start again.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017





This is a poem for Laura Shovan's Annual February Writing Project. The words/phrases for this poem

screen

shoot

stickier

soft

smashing

scraping

speed

smoother

slower

sticky

originated here.

Jone has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Check it Out.

Thanks for your patience to all who depend on Kidlitosphere Central for the list of Poetry Friday host blogs. Life blew up and I kept putting other things above "update the link list" on my TO DOs. A teacher work day tomorrow and Monday off for Presidents' Day has given me enough breathing space to get 'er done. (And, as usual, it wasn't such a big deal...I just needed to BEGIN.)

BIRTHDAY CAKE - a food poem, a cooking poem

BIRTHDAY CAKE

Measuring Spoons
Our advice?
Be precise.

Kitchen Aid
I stand…
I mix, blend,
whip, stir, knead…
at your command.

Cake Pans
We’re fickle.
Three layers stick
whenever we pick.

Violets on the Windowsill
We choose
purple for our blooms.
You make the air go blue
because of what the pans decided to do.

Table
Come sit.
Unwind.
Write a bit.
Find
the humor in all of it.
Be resigned,
start again. Don’t quit.


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012



Poem #8, National Poetry Month 2012

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?