I am not an ardent lover of poetry. In fact, by and large I find it all too easy to simply forget about this, as Wordsworth described it, spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. Yet, every year as the snow melts and the plants, animals, and even humans that have slipped into dormancy begin to arise and sing, so too does my soul and that is when I find myself searching out this expressive genre. Perhaps that is why every spring I so look forward to the month of April designated as National Poetry month.
However, likely due to my status as an infrequent reader, without fail I find myself struggling year after year to know where to turn. And that is why this April, I was utterly elated to discover "The Hungry Ear" a collection of poems focused on, related to, and in praise of food and drink edited by Kevin Young.
I first picked up this collection simply because I was intrigued. Food and poetry? Where do these two seemingly disparate things meet I wondered? My intrigue was quickly quenched as even from a brief first reading, it is apparent that food and poetry not only meet again and again but are indeed, seemingly made for each other. As Young states in his introduction to the collection "food and poetry each insist that we put our own twists and ingredients in the mix: we make each dish, like a good poem, our own. With any luck, the result is both surprising and satisfying, exactly what we wanted, perhaps without even knowing it."
And this collection is most definitely surprising and satisfying. Organized first seasonally and then further broken down by activities that occur within each season, wonderful selections such as Ruth Stone's "Pokeberries" and Billy Collins "Osso Bucco" are found underneath categories like First Harvet and Meat and Potatoes. Those though, are just two of the many categories and poems and there are certainly oh-so-many more. To be sure, this thick collection, like a good meal, presents a vast array of tastes to be savored bit by bit. Fortunately for me, April is just getting started and who knows, perhaps this year my poetry diet will last just like the "Hungry Ear."
