‘Tis soup season, and writer Padraig O Tauma recommends adding poems to your recipes as part of the preparation process. He is a brilliant poet; plus, his Irish accent would be melodious even if reciting the fine print of a legal contract. I humbly submit my own favorite seasonings of words and flavors of verses.
Chopping vegetables for the soup, I like to recite witty, sing-song poems from Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky, which my elementary school kids have served up from their school.
As the dog sits and vibrates at my feet, I remember Mary Oliver’s “For I Will Consider My Dog Percy,” which is a derivative of Christopher Smart’s “For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry.” Poems, like recipes, are best when handed down.
In poetry and in cooking, you add your own touches. While adding spices, I like to chant a line from Nikki Giovanni’s Love Poems: “I wrote a good omelet and ate a hot poem after loving you.” Of course, I substitute “soup” for “omelet.”
As I stir the soup, I speak these lines from Wendell Berry as an incantation: “Suppose we did our work like the snow, quietly, quietly, leaving nothing out.” I think we’ll agree that the words “double, double, toil, and trouble” don’t have the same soothing effect!
After tasting the soup from the spoon and realizing it is just right, I give a chef’s kiss, then exclaim Emily Dickinson’s blessing, “In the name of the bee, and of the butterfly, and of the breeze, amen!”
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of “Little Big Moments,” a collection of mini-essays about parenting, and “Tigers, Mice & Strawberries: Poems.” Both titles are available most anywhere books are sold online. Taylor-Troutman lives in Chapel Hill where he serves as pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church and occasionally stumbles upon the wondrous while in search of his next cup of coffee.
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