365 days

...

menu
m ?
t Black bean tostadas
w Asian shrimp noodles
t breakfast
f ?
s Mexican chicken pizza

Nichole's WW journal

...

reading

...

the books of 2007
  • "The Children of Men"
  • "A Spot of Bother"
  • "At First Sight"
  • "The Night Gardener"
    the books of 2006
    books to read

    ...

    The Best Ribs
    Dad's Ever Had
  • Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville
  • The Alton Brown recipe Nichole made
  • The ribs at that place in Branson
  • Carolina Barbecue
  • FireBonz
  • ...

    Thursday, March 30, 2006

    "A Pot of Red Lentils"

    American Life in Poetry: Column 053

    By Ted Kooser
    U.S. poet laureate

    Writing poetry, reading poetry, we are invited to join with others in celebrating life, even the ordinary, daily pleasures. Here the Seattle poet and physician, Peter Pereira, offer us a simple meal.


    A Pot of Red Lentils

    simmers on the kitchen stove.
    All afternoon dense kernels
    surrender to the fertile
    juices, their tender bellies
    swelling with delight.

    In the yard we plant
    rhubarb, cauliflower, and artichokes,
    cupping wet earth over tubers,
    our labor the germ
    of later sustenance and renewal.

    Across the field the sound of a baby crying
    as we carry in the last carrots,
    whorls of butter lettuce,
    a basket of red potatoes.

    I want to remember us this way --
    late September sun streaming through
    the window, bread loaves and golden
    bunches of grapes on the table,
    spoonfuls of hot soup rising
    to our lips, filling us
    with what endures.

    Reprinted from "Saying the World," 2003, by permission of Copper Canyon Press. Copyright (c) 2003 by Peter Pereira.

    posted by Nichole @ 12:22 PM  

    . . . . . comments . . . . .

    post a comment

    www.flickr.com

    ...

    wishlist

    ...

    previous posts
    ...Adventures at the nerdery
    ..."Travels with Charley"
    ...American English
    ...She has the most wonderful toys
    ...Man, I want a house.
    ...Practically perfect
    ..."Radiator"
    ...I don't know what to say about this.
    ...The Pittsnoggle blues
    ..."If you can't breathe, you can't help anybody."

    ...

    ...

    Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

    ...

    The girl at portfelia.com makes super-duper patterns. She made this one. Cool, eh?

    ...

    Hey Alex! Click here!
    Get awesome blog templates like this one from BlogSkins.com