recipe poem | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘recipe poem’

Poetry Friday: A Recipe for Friendship

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #smallpoems, Georgia Heard, Heidi Mordhorst, Inklings challenge, recipe poem on October 3, 2025| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday is gathered today by Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme.

Today is the first Friday of a new month, October, and time for an Inklings challenge. I asked my writing group friends to exchange photos for an image poem. I invite you to participate in image poetry every Wednesday right here with This Photo Wants to be a Poem.

My exchange partner was Heidi. She had the opportunity to visit fellow Inkling, Molly, in Maine this summer. I am quite jealous that they all made blueberry jam together. I could not resist the delicious collection of jars in Heidi’s photo.

Georgia Heard inspired my poem by sending her own recipe poem through her newsletter.

Click on each link below to see other image poem posts from Inklings.

Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Mary Lee @A(nother) Year of Reading
Heidi @my juicy little universe

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Poetry Friday: A Recipe for Dressing and Love

Posted in Poetry Friday, Recipe, Writing, tagged #Poetrypals, haibun, recipe poem, thanksgiving on November 25, 2022| 6 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted by Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town.

The Poetry Sisters put out a challenge that fits well with this Thanksgiving season, a recipe poem. Thanks for the challenge Laura, Tanita, Mary Lee, Liz, Kelly, Tricia, Sara, and Andi! Find more of these poems tagged with #PoetryPals.

A Recipe for Dressing and Love (a haibun)

My mother made the dressing, the whole meal actually, but especially the dressing. Only Ballard cornbread mix would do, baked in a cast iron skillet to the perfect shade of brown. Sauté the trinity–onions, celery, bell pepper–in pure, smooth butter. Mix crumbled cornbread with vegetables, a sprinkle of sage, soak in chicken broth. I used vegetable broth instead the year I was vegan, but my children vetoed the change. Nostalgia for Dot’s dressing, an original recipe. Today I ask my mom if she remembers the recipe. She doesn’t. Whether evidence of memory loss or just the passage of time, I tell her,”It’s OK.” I open my recipe book, find the handwritten sheet of paper and begin, again.

Her cornbread dressing
mixed with a heart of kindness–
Recipe for love
Margaret Simon, draft

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Slice of Life: Recipe for #Why I Write

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged Georgia Heard, recipe poem on October 22, 2019| 6 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life

This fall has been slow in coming. The leaves are changing, the days are shorter, but the temperatures are not cooling off much. It makes it hard to get into the mood of autumn. I got a little help from Georgia Heard. She has a sweet poem from Falling Down the Page called Recipe for Writing an Autumn Poem.

Recipe for Writing An Autumn Poem
by Georgia Heard
One teaspoon wild geese.
One tablespoon red kite.
One pint trembling leaves.
One quart darkening sky.
One gallon north wind.

This is a wonderful prompt to use with kids.

I decided to combine this poetry prompt with the National Writing Project and NCTE’s Day on Writing prompt #WhyIWrite.

Recipe for Why I Write
One teaspoon clean paper
One tablespoon colored ink
One cup imagination
One pint relationship
One quart dedication
One gallon liberation
An empty page invites color, lines, words, sentences
which become an expression of emotion
looking for connection. This relationship
is rocky, requiring dedication. But one thing is certain:
The freedom to write
belongs to everyone!
Margaret Simon, (c) 2019

Jaden responded with a beautiful recipe for writing.

A Recipe for Writing a Poem

by Jaden, 4th grade

One teaspoon of creative minds
One tablespoon of repeating and rhyming words
One cup of a magic image
One pint of dazzled emotion
One quart of comparing things with like and as
And one gallon of my heart

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Poetry Friday: poetic paths

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Matt Forrest Esenwine, recipe poem on January 11, 2019| 14 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is Down Under with Kat.

I didn’t have any ideas about what I would write today. As I read other Poetry Friday posts, I became more inspired. Matt Forrest Esenwine celebrates the acceptance of a poem for an anthology honoring poet Donald Hall. Matt’s post included an image of a snowy road. The image led me down a path to a new poem.

Too many things concern me today.
My attention is crowded
with walls blocking out human sighs.

On my screen I click on an image
of a path
along a snowy road
a mountain in the distance
and find a poem.

I kick those hard stones.
Look up to the blue mountain.

My thoughts are
insignificant,
unspoken as a meadow.

–Margaret Simon, 2019

Someone on Poetry Friday suggested the book Getting the Knack by Stephen Dunning and William Stafford. I’m trying some of the poetry exercises with my students. This week we tried out the recipe poem.

Recipe for a Poem

One blank page–open, lined, waiting…

A colorful pen. Try a different color each day.

Tip-tap your fingers over the lines making multiple dots.
Dots become letters become words.
Top off with a tasty metaphor–
Marshmallow clouds on a snowy day.
Read out loud.

–Margaret Simon, 2019