Tabatha sent out a call for a poetic celebration of Mac&Cheese for today, National Mac&Cheese Day. I stopped making Mac&Cheese long ago when my girls began to understand and worry about nutrition. Mac&Cheese is packaged processed food, Mom. Don’t you know it contains chemicals?
Now my cooking skills are not of the caliber to make Mac&Cheese from scratch. My son-in-law made it for Thanksgiving a few years ago. It was delicious, but he made it in vats, so we had to give some away. I have to admit it was better than anything ever made from a box.
For my Mac&Cheese poem, I decided to use a form. Form helps me when I don’t know what to write. I chose the Zeno form created by J. Patrick Lewis that follows a syllable count of 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1. I think it’s quite corny, but if anything calls for a side of corn, it’s Mac&Cheese.
Tabatha also coordinates the Summer Poetry Swap. This week I received a most precious set of salt & pepper shakers for my bayou home from Irene Latham. She also sent a wonderful Nikki Grimes’ style word exploration poem in honor of my recent work-in-progress, Bayou Song. Thanks, Irene for brightening up a rainy summer day on the bayou.
Ha! I love the form fit to the topic. Ya, mac & cheese is delicious homemade….but I try not to grab the blue box that my kids seem to love. When I ask why they say that chemicals TASTE good. Hmmmmm. In a few years, I hope they figure out that chemicals aren’t necessarily good for a body!
What lovely gifts from your summer poetry swap pal. Bayou is perfect—what a great mentor poem for all of us. Find a body of water close by and sketch it out in poetic terms.
I think all mothers resort to that blue box, Margaret. In fact, I made homemade mac & cheese when Michael had a friend over and the boy wouldn’t eat it because it wasn’t out of a box! Irene’s poem is a treasure, and I love the salt & pepper shakers.
“Macaroni” is a hard word that everyone knows, isn’t it?
Those salt and pepper shakers are adorable, and Irene’s poem makes you slow down and savor the mysterious world of the bayou. Very nice!
Oh, what a treat to see the S&P shakers. They look like characters from a picture book. And the poetry, yum. And eek! LOL The quiet menace of being called by a gator. Delicious shiver.
Your Mac and Zeno made me laugh! I love Irene’s poem, too. Especially the way the gator eyes divide the poem and the “If you dare” ending!
Margaret, I love your zeno poem and the reference to the blue box that was a fav in my household. I found a commercial from 1996 that shouts out the pleasures of the Kraft treat.
Irene brought the bayou to life in her poetry and salt and pepper shakers. I look forward to Bayou Song for the power of poetry Southern style.
Love your poem and Irene’s! Hey, a few manmade chemicals interspersed with a greater quantity of, well, homemade(?) chemicals can’t be all that bad…
Yes, I’ve been guilty of helping my family to those blue boxes once upon a time. Irene’s poem is a special gift – your special place!
Love your zeno–and that you’ve paired your parenting and teaching in one blue box! Lucky you to get that wonderful poem from Irene.
Fun collection of poems here, Margaret! My daughter continues to use a “healthy” variety of the stand in “Blue” box. Watch out for that gator!
My dad wasn’t much of a cook, so when I was little and my mum worked night shifts it was either Kraft dinner or canned spaghetti on toast! 😉
When I was in graduate school, my husband made “Alli-getti” using alligator sausage and jarred spaghetti sauce. My girls have fond memories but would never cook that today.
Fun poem, Margaret – and that thoughtful Irene always knows just the right way to shake up things. ;0) (“fluid as moonlight” is just gorgeous, no?)
Thanks for reminding me about the Zeno form…could be helpful for math poems! I like your little environmental print poem, and Irene’s bayou offering is terrific. Maybe you should use it as your foreword, when your book gets published!
I actually thought of that, too. I love that you said, “when your book gets published.” Zeno is a fun form. My students love it, too.
I tried homemade mac and cheese once-and my daughter refused to eat it. Back to the box stuff. Such lovely gifts from Irene. Her poem invites me to come explore!
I agree having a form to rely on makes getting started easier. Love Irene’s poem too!