friday feast: grated cheese and other delights

It’s the last Friday in March, and I couldn’t be more excited.

It’s almost time for the second annual Alphabet Soup Poetry Potluck!

Beginning next Friday, a different good-looking, exceedingly charming poet will drop by each weekday to share an original poem and favorite recipe in celebration of National Poetry Month. You probably already know these people have a way with words, but wait till you see what they’ve got going on in the kitchen! Can we just say spicy salsa, lemony goodness, and the soul-stirring aroma of melty chocolate and almonds? I cannot wait to serve up all the wonderful literary and culinary treats they’ve so lovingly created for the occasion. Talk about food for the body, mind and spirit!

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friday feast: basho’s wisdom

 


For a lovely bowl

let us arrange these flowers . . .

since there is no rice.

 

In honor of Japan, I’m sharing several haiku written by the great master Basho. After seeing so much devastation and human suffering on the news, I thought we all might need a few moments of quiet reflection and contemplation.

I’d been wanting to post about Japan all week, but couldn’t find the words. I wanted to talk about the fortitude, stoicism, courage, and resilience of the Japanese people — how they’ve been living in makeshift shelters, searching for their loved ones, standing in water lines for hours, willing to share their meager food rations with others who need it. They’ve remained relatively calm despite losing everything and bearing ever worsening fears about the future — no public displays of greed, looting or panic.

From what I know of Japanese culture and society, this doesn’t necessarily surprise me, yet I’m still awestruck and inspired a thousand times over. I was lucky enough to visit Japan once, and most of my close friends in Hawai’i are Japanese, so I learned a lot about the culture through osmosis. It’s not about the individual; it’s about the group, putting others before yourself. What one person does reflects on the whole. The rest of the world would do well to adopt this unspoken code of shared responsibility.

As you know, haiku capture fleeting moments. We are invited to bring our own emotions and associations to what is presented and possibly glimpse the interdependence of all things.

I selected the haiku for today’s post based on what I observed this past week. Though these poems date back to the 17th century, they accurately represent modern Japanese sensibility — to exult in the commonplace, to find beauty in simplicity, and to fully experience the riches of the natural world. For those whose lives were changed in a catastrophic instant, their miraculous survival is the poetry of the moment. Such is their abiding luminosity; they will build again.

 

 

No oil to read by . . . 

I am off to bed

but ah! . . .

My moonlit pillow

 

 

Ah me! I am one

who spends his little

breakfast

Morning-glory gazing

 

 

 

Fever-felled half-way

my dreams arose

To march again . . .

Into a hollow land

 

We continue to pray for the safety, well being, healing and recovery for the people of Japan, and offer our deepest condolences for those lost. Would that our monetary donations could also fill their hearts with renewed, unending hope as they live hand to mouth, moment to moment. 

Today’s Roundup is being hosted by Andi at a wrung sponge.

*Photo credits: Sakura bowl by pink_emmie_bat/flickr, moonlight temple by savon1809/flickr, morning glories by pen3ya/flickr, Mt. Fuji by matsunuma/flickr.

 

 

Copyright © 2011 Jama Rattigan of jama rattigan’s alphabet soup. All rights reserved.

 

a little taste of james joyce

#3 in an eclectic collection of notable noshes to whet your appetite and brighten your day.


Erasmus T/flickr


“The artist, like the God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.” (Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)

 

“It soared, a bird, it held its flight, a swift pure cry, soar silver orb it leaped serene, speeding, sustained, to come, don’t spin it out too long long breath he breath long life, soaring high, high resplendent, aflame, crowned, high in the effulgence symbolistic, high, of the ethereal bosom, high, of the high vast irradiation everywhere all soaring all around about the all, the endlessnessnessness…”  (Ulysses)


      Joyce’s sketch of Leopold Bloom (source).

 

“What is home without Plumtree’s Potted Meat? Incomplete. With it an abode of bliss.” (Ulysses)


andycoan/flickr

 

” . . . and thither come all herds and fatlings and first fruits of that land for O’Connell Fitzsimon takes toll of them . . . Thither the extremely large wains bring foison of the fields, flaskets of cauliflowers, floats of spinach, pineapple chunks, Rangoon beans, strikes of tomatoes, drums of figs, drills of Swedes, spherical potatoes and tallies of iridescent kale, York and Savoy, and trays of onions, pearls of the earth, and punnets of mushrooms and custard marrows and fat vetches and bere and rape and red green yellow brown russet sweet big bitter ripe pomellated apples and chips of strawberries and sieves of gooseberries, pulp and pelurious, and strawberries fit for princes and raspberries from their canes.” (Ulysses)

“Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods’ roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.” (Ulysses

Yum!

We’re out of mutton kidneys, so please have one of these:


Recipe for Minty Shamrock Ice Cream Sandwiches here.

 

 Happy St. Paddy’s Day (do a little jig in your abode of bliss)!

Copyright © 2011 Jama Rattigan of jama rattigan’s alphabet soup. All rights reserved.

 

honk for japan!

Via Into the Wardrobe:

For every 1,000,000 views of this video, higahiga will donate $600 to Japan disaster relief. Cool idea!

chatting with margaret cardillo and julia denos about just being audrey

“God kissed her on the cheek, and there she was.” ~ Billy Wilder on Audrey Hepburn

I’m really happy to welcome author Margaret Cardillo and illustrator Julia Denos to alphabet soup today because I love love their new picture book biography, Just Being Audrey (Balzer + Bray, 2011)!

As a lifelong Audrey fan, I was truly excited when I first heard about this book when reading Julia’s fab interview at 7-Imp. At a time when young girls look to celebrities for role models, and when all too often those role models disappoint, it’s heartening to know that now Audrey’s story can be held up as rock solid inspiration.

Distilling Hepburn’s fascinating life into 32 pages must have been a daunting task, but Margaret and Julia have done a beautiful job of presenting significant milestones — from Audrey’s unique childhood in Nazi-occupied Europe, to her rise as an award-winning actress and fashion icon, to the tireless work she did on behalf of the world’s impoverished children as International Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.

 

I love how Just Being Audrey captures the essence of Audrey’s grace, elegance, style, beauty, indomitable spirit, and unfailing kindness. She was definitely someone who always remained true to herself, and it’s exciting to see generation after generation, regardless of age or gender, continue to admire not only Audrey’s “movie star” persona, but also the totally unassuming person she was in real life. The more you learn about Audrey, the more you want to emulate her conduct and live by her values. Margaret’s and Julia’s own admiration, enthusiasm and love for Audrey shine through on every page — making this well-written, gorgeously illustrated book an especially good choice for Women’s History Month and a wonderful keepsake for girls (and women) of all ages.

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