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Recipe for a Poem

Scraped clean of glib and warty observation,
On pristine paper place one piercing thought.
Add in the fragrant oil of concentration,
Simmer in meaning. When the blend you sought

Requires further action verbs to savor,
And phrases come together in a form,
Add adjectives, if needed, for some flavor;
Be sure you follow every rule and norm.

Sprinkle with punctuation on the whole,
Succinctly serve with silver syllable
Upon a bed of meaning, in a bowl
Replete with meter’s sharply vibrant trill.

To this product of imagination
Add weighty words, like lightning in a storm.
Light them with a spark of exaltation—
Make all your phrases and allusions warm.

Set certain twists of thought aside to mull,
Punctuate concepts with artistic zeal—
Add some reflective spice; strain out all dull
Memory—keep it realer than the real.

Let it be a bauble you have wrought—
A gem embedded in the light you’ve caught.

.

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Sally Cook is both a poet and a painter of magical realism. Her poems have also appeared in Blue Unicorn, First Things, Chronicles, The Formalist Portal, Light Quarterly, National Review, Pennsylvania Review, TRINACRIA, and other electronic and print journals. A six-time nominee for a Pushcart award, in 2007 Cook was featured poet in The Raintown Review. She has received several awards from the World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets, and her Best American Poetry Challenge-winning poem “As the Underworld Turns” was published in Pool. 

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30 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Sally, what a great recipe for writing classical and meaningful poetry! Everyone should pay attention to the myriad devices for improving their own poetry and in the order presented. That “one piercing thought” to begin may later be placed at any key point of the poem such as the beginning or the end. You have achieved so much with this approach in writing your own poems.

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      Dear Roy,
      If only one poet can takie away what you suggest in your comment and put it to good use, then I can count this poem a success. Thanks for your perceptive reading and analysis of it

      Reply
  3. Paul A. Freeman

    I recently wrote the ‘recipe’ for a limerick and thought that was tough.

    You’ve really cooked up a winner here, Sally, and inspired me to get one of those piercing thoughts down on paper and see where it leads me.

    Thanks for the read.

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      There can be no favorites when making a poem ! All must work together in glorious unity —

      Reply
  5. Cynthia Erlandson

    What a great extended metaphor! I find it an intimidating recipe, though; perhaps that’s because I am, in the literal sense, not a creative cook.

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      Perhaps you are more creative than literal, I have always found this to be so.

      Reply
  6. Joseph S. Salemi

    This marvelous poem is one long “conceit,” in that it takes something that we know (a recipe) and re-imagines it as the composition of a poem. A deft choice of culinary words (“fragrant oil,” “blend,” “savor,” “sprinkle,” “serve,” “upon a bed,” “in a bowl”) all keep the reader’s mind focused on this primary metaphor. But at the end the poet shifts to imagination, lightning, and sparks, so that what we get is not a dish of prepared food but “a bauble,” “a gem” — something wrought in fires hotter and fiercer than those of the kitchen.

    This is work of the highest caliber, making use of superb diction, exquisite meter, and an imaginative leap from simple cookery to the shattering eruptions of poetic creation. Like a diamond born in the hot throat of a volcano! I am dazzled by this.

    This is what fictive artifacts should be. They are “baubles,” but they are brilliant.

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      Dear Joe,

      Such praise from such as you !
      Honestly, Joe, I just try to do the best I can.,

      Reply
  7. C.B. Anderson

    If only, Sally, it were as easy as following a recepe, then everyone would be writing good poems. But if everyone were a poet, then no one would be a poet. Still, “bard” does rhyme with “lard.” I’m buying it.

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      Oh, Kip, what can I say?

      Lard did not enter into it.

      PS – Everyone isn’t, wasn’t and never will be a poet.

      Reply
  8. Jonathan Kinsman

    Our poetic talent is grounded in analogies, in noticing how things recall or remind other things and how all this enhances our understanding of both.

    As per your name (I am bold here, for I am not your ‘Kinsman’ and I am taking a liberty of manners), you “rush forth” assuredly as the “princess’ you are and true to your creative genius and nature, you “ripen” and “turn over in mind” the perfect way to entertain your famished guests, we starved and whetted few, we proud, we hungry-for-more supplicants.

    What time is dinner served, Sally??

    Thank you for a witty and prettily executed long sonnet!

    Jonathan

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      Dear Jonathan –

      I get all the allusions and references, but honestly, I have to say what does it matter?
      Clever is fun but not enough and I have never been a clever person. I deal in truths and images. Perhaps these are what drew you to this poem. In any case, I see you can’t help but look for challenges,
      you were drawn, and I am glad you were, A mind like yours needs more challenges. May I consider you a new friend?

      Reply
  9. Yael

    Great! Sounds like a tasty mind and soul nourishing recipe. I’m coming over for dinner to have me some of this.

    Reply
  10. Margaret Coats

    Sally, I see that you finish the dish in the early stanzas, for the third speaks of how to serve it. I’m very glad to see “meaning” twice during the cooking process. I read the fourth stanza as lighting candles on the table, although it could just as easily be presenting the main dish flambee (no accent mark available for the French “flaming” term, but that’s what I mean). I’d suggest you might re-name the “product” in line 13 as “repast of your imagination” (or maybe “entree”), for a more foodie word. Goes with the implication that what you “add” in line 14 is vital accompaniments such as gravy or side dishes. In the last part of stanza 4 and in stanza 5, you seem to be going on to table conversation, which is of course a good part of appreciating a well-cooked meal. Thus I’ll also suggest you replace “Punctuate” in line 18 with “Think over” (considering appreciative conversation) or “Glaze over” (for a final food touch), since punctuation just prior to serving was done in line 9. “In the light” is a bright last phrase conveying the all-important meat or “meaning” ingredient into kind of understanding the reader or eater can gain.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Every poem, if it is composed using coherent English grammar and syntax, has some sort of “meaning.” It is simply one more brick in the wall of the verbal creation. Mentioning the name of the brick twice in a poem doesn’t mean that it is “all-important.” Let’s not turn a fictive artifact into a Western Union message or a homily.

      Reply
    • Sally Cook

      Margaret –

      Hope to see you soon for lunch. I’m frying up a mess of fictive artifacts today… they are jumping right out of the cosmic frying pan!

      Reply
      • Jonathan Kinsman

        Please fricassee my fictive artifacts, and toss in some sage, I am feeling a bout of sonnets coming on. And Sally, give the stew a few voltas to the left, I believe it improves the aromatic verbs in your metaphoric kitchen.

        Seriously: I have been reading your poetry (Archives) on line and the Muse and I agree you need a wider audience! You are witty, pretty and certainly talented! And I am not buffaloeing you on this. Shoshana loves your art, too!

  11. Brian A. Yapko

    What a delightfully delicious and exuberant poem this is, Sally! I’ve seen so many poems on the creative process which just fail to ignite, but yours really takes off in a way that is not only charming but inspiring. You make poetry fun! I especially like your phrasing of that “spark of exaltation” as well as “keep it realer than the real.” This whole poem is a smile in rhyme. More please!

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      And if anything should be fun, why should it not be art? Glad to see you can enjoy a good giggle.

      Reply
  12. Isabella

    What a beautifully delicious poem! So many memorable lines to savour. My particular favourite “Add in the fragrant oil of concentration” I shall think of this line when my focus is wavering. Thank you for a wonderful read.

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      The fragrant oil of concentration is difficult to find, and beyond price. But is one of the most essential ingredients in whipping up a poem. So often I see lackluster poems with lazy rhyming and half thought out messages. And truly, it hurts.

      Reply
  13. Shamik Banerjee

    A perfectly executed and relatable poem. What’s great about this piece is that it lists all the important points required to craft a good poem while making it a delightful read. I believe, for those about to embark on their poetic journey, this piece will serve them well. Thanks for this, Sally.

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      I am so happy to know the recipe lost nothing in translation. Truly, we all speak English, yet have our own dialects, and sometimes a word will lose something in its voyage across an ocean. You, however, found it floundering on the shore, picked it up, took it home and enjoyed it fresh for breakfast !

      Thanks for expressing your enjoyment in such enthusiastic terms.

      Reply
  14. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Dear Sally, now this is my kind of recipe – an excellently crafted marvel that I will be returning to when I’m striving for the perfect linguistic confection. The closing couplet is a tasteful triumph. Thank you!

    Reply

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