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I subscribe to Choice Literacy’s Big Fresh newsletter. This month Brenda Power writes about ambition versus aspiration. She also opens with a Mary Oliver quote, “Joy is not made to be a crumb.”
Tricia Stohr-Hunt’s prompt on Laura Shovan’s February Poetry Project was a variety of birthday cakes. (This year we are writing about food.) I thought of a Facebook post I had seen of a baby eating his first birthday cake. This is apparently a thing, first birthday cake smash.
Smashing all of those things together made a poem that I am pleased with, if only for the pleasure it evokes.
Joy is not a crumb;
it is the whole cake
eaten by a child
on his first birthday
digging with his cake-filled hand
bite by bite, grip by grip
until the cake and icing cover
every part of his head
seeping up into his nostrils.
That kind of joy is your Aspiration
Go for it!
(c) Margaret Simon, 2019
Photo by Susan Michelle Brisson.
Reflections on the Teche 
It must be a small cake 😊
Delightful, Margaret! So much joy! And I love the Mary Oliver quote. I opted out of Lauren Shovan’s project this year. {sigh} One month-long challenge was all I could commit to. It’s not the writing; it’s the reading and commenting.
I know what you mean. I’m already feeling the guilt over not commenting enough.
This is wonderful in every way–the poem, the process notes, and the gorgeous image of joy as the whole cake. (And I am so behind in commenting! And even as I catch up, I get farther behind, LOL.)
I love the way you grow Oliver’s metaphor into a full-blown, unforgettable image.
“…bite by bite, grip by grip…” What a wonderful image. You should be proud of this poem.
I’m behind on reading the Big Fresh – I love this quote and think your poem is sharing a bunch fun for a little one.
I love it! I don’t know about cake smashing, but I vividly remember my oldest son’s first birthday and the way that chubby little fist grabbed hold of the cake and squeezed! My dad (his grandpa) laughed so hard–sheer delight! Thanks for sharing your poem–and evoking this long ago memory!
Oh my, YES! Cake smashing on the 1st birthday most certainly is a thing! I have treasured pictures of all my girls doing just this on their first birthdays. Such fun! Your poem depicts it perfectly.