Beautiful Poetry

[darkmaas]

Shoot a rocket off for me and I'll pop a cork.

Egad ...

<clutching heart>

... I take my tea clear, thank you.

 

[Angeline]

Just waiting for a thread about Canadian Food and someone to drop a bit of flattery.

I am disturbed that her bubbliness (vintage '82) was less than enthusiastic about poutine. It's a dish perhaps best avoided by the faint of heart and like the lowly club sandwich is often misinterpreted ... but it puts the warm-and-huggy into comfort food. Find a place that uses fresh cheese curd rather than chewed up mozzarella ... wash it down with fine wine or a respectable beer and feel at one with the universe. Guaranteed to increase libido and sexual fortitude. Leave the rectitude for those poor souls condemned to sprouts and tofu ... I digress ...

A warm welcome BTW to Lelanni.

Hi Ange and a belated happy birthday to your bird.

It was the "handsome" part that made you swoop back in, wasn't it?


Why does the thought of any kind of cheese "curd" make me shudder?

 

[darkmaas]

Love Song of J Alfred Poutine

Let us eat then
you and I
dinner is spread out
like chips and gravy
congealed upon the table

the yellow curd
that melts and flows
on the back
of heated fries
lingering upon the pools
of oily gravy

in the room the women come and go
talking of mighty libido

and indeed there will be time
for a hundred visions and revulsions
before the taking of curds and tea
make mine a double

do I dare to eat a peach?

 

[Tzara]

Let us eat then
you and I
dinner is spread out
like chips and gravy
congealed upon the table

the yellow curd
that melts and flows
on the back
of heated fries
lingering upon the pools
of oily gravy

in the room the women come and go
talking of mighty libido

and indeed there will be time
for a hundred visions and revulsions
before the taking of curds and tea
make mine a double

do I dare to eat a peach?

I respectfully suggest that your line breaks need work, dm. Par exemple:

Let us eat then, you and I,
Where our dinner is spread out under the sky
Like frites and gravy congealed upon a table;
Let us seek Montréal's so twisty streets,
Heart shuddering retreats
Where thrombosis is as cheap as sleaze hotels
And restaurants our veins make bagatelles.
Sheets follow inebrious integument,
The invidious extent
That leads us to a Francophonic question...
Oh, do not ask, "What is this?''
Let us sample, eat, and visit.

In the room the doctors come and go
Talking of cholesterol.​

For those of you who are wondering what 'zactly this delectable food is of which we speak, check out this page, from MIT no less, that prominently features curds from Seattle's own Beecher's Cheese.

The stuff looks to me like heart attack on a plate, or in a styrofoam cup, depending. But it also—damn my fat-loving heart—looks tasty. 'Least it ain't fries with a half-pound of mayonnaise dumped on them, like you find in Amsterdam.

OK, moot point. Those beaver tail thingies sound good too. Do I have to actually know something about hockey to be an honorary Canadian?

 

[champagne1982]

OK, moot point. Those beaver tail thingies sound good too. Do I have to actually know something about hockey to be an honorary Canadian?

First, let me say that beaver tails have nothing to do with hockey. One such tail is an antiquated broom that sweeps ice free of rocks thrown at houses, all in the name of fun.
Second, good poem but I think Chicoutami would be a better setting than Montreal, the Habitant roots show more in the north.
And third, I need to know how you pronounce honorary. "HUHonarary" or "Onorarry"? This will place you on the map faster than sayin' it's aboot time!

 

[Angeline]

I respectfully suggest that your line breaks need work, dm. Par exemple:

Let us eat then, you and I,
Where our dinner is spread out under the sky
Like frites and gravy congealed upon a table;
Let us seek Montréal's so twisty streets,
Heart shuddering retreats
Where thrombosis is as cheap as sleaze hotels
And restaurants our veins make bagatelles.
Sheets follow inebrious integument,
The invidious extent
That leads us to a Francophonic question...
Oh, do not ask, "What is this?''
Let us sample, eat, and visit.

In the room the doctors come and go
Talking of cholesterol.​

For those of you who are wondering what 'zactly this delectable food is of which we speak, check out this page, from MIT no less, that prominently features curds from Seattle's own Beecher's Cheese.

The stuff looks to me like heart attack on a plate, or in a styrofoam cup, depending. But it also—damn my fat-loving heart—looks tasty. 'Least it ain't fries with a half-pound of mayonnaise dumped on them, like you find in Amsterdam.

OK, moot point. Those beaver tail thingies sound good too. Do I have to actually know something about hockey to be an honorary Canadian?

Lovely poem. Both you and darkmaas would make Eliot proud (not). And thanks for the MIT Poutine page. I now know more about Poutine, um probably than most people from New Jersey. . .

I especially liked the "Poutine Meal Deal"--Poutine, pop, and 25 cigarettes. There's gotta be an ode to bad living in that.

 

[darkmaas]

My hat is off to Tzara...

... for your superior impersonation of poor T.S.

Any thought of a fast food Eliot poetry challenge has been crushed by that unbeatable performance.

Thanks as well for the link to those lads at MIT. They have their act together. It's all there; the St. Hubert gravy, the fresh curd, the double layer.

I must also confess that I enjoy my fries with mayo. It comes from having friends from Belgium who will bore you with their constant and tedious assertion that the French fry was in fact invented by a Belgian. The thing about chips and mayo is that one is immediately tempted to improve on the original by the judicious use of a flavoured mayonaise, or shoe string potato chips, or even sweet potato fries. (A local eatery, for instance, offers sweet potato frites with chipotle mayo ... fusion cuisine)

Poutine on the other hand defies improvements. The use of more exotic cheeses is a waste, fiddling with the gravy only leads to tears and debasements such as onions or jalapenos are just plain immoral. (We shall not speak of TOFU as a cheese substitute). A very popular local bistro offers up a poutine with duck confit in attempt gourmetize the dish but, although it is tasty, it is hardly worth the effort.

I must stop. I am weighed down with guilt at what can only be seen as a hijacking of Lelanni's thread.

P.S.
Regarding honourary Canadian status, I should focus on proper spelling rather than hockey. As I recall the present Queen of the Netherlands spent a period of exile in Ottawa so there is certainly strong precedent.

 

[Angeline]

... for your superior impersonation of poor T.S.

Any thought of a fast food Eliot poetry challenge has been crushed by that unbeatable performance.

Thanks as well for the link to those lads at MIT. They have their act together. It's all there; the St. Hubert gravy, the fresh curd, the double layer.

I must also confess that I enjoy my fries with mayo. It comes from having friends from Belgium who will bore you with their constant and tedious assertion that the French fry was in fact invented by a Belgian. The thing about chips and mayo is that one is immediately tempted to improve on the original by the judicious use of a flavoured mayonaise, or shoe string potato chips, or even sweet potato fries. (A local eatery, for instance, offers sweet potato frites with chipotle mayo ... fusion cuisine)

Poutine on the other hand defies improvements. The use of more exotic cheeses is a waste, fiddling with the gravy only leads to tears and debasements such as onions or jalapenos are just plain immoral. (We shall not speak of TOFU as a cheese substitute). A very popular local bistro offers up a poutine with duck confit in attempt gourmetize the dish but, although it is tasty, it is hardly worth the effort.

I must stop. I am weighed down with guilt at what can only be seen as a hijacking of Lelanni's thread.

P.S.
Regarding honourary Canadian status, I should focus on proper spelling rather than hockey. As I recall the present Queen of the Netherlands spent a period of exile in Ottawa so there is certainly strong precedent.

See this is why the poem we tried to write together about food at the Jersey shore didn't work. You started talking about artisan breads and gourmet mustards, and I thought "if we were really there, Guido would flatten him and I'd have to step in and screech like the fishwife from Union City I really can be if I try and then I'd blow my cover as a sonnetizing, high-minded priestess of poems. And we can't have that.

 

[darkmaas]

What to wear at the Jersey shore?

Blowing your cover on a Jersey beach is a dire problem. I am however reminded of a conversation about "bikinis of our youth" that is causing the corners of my lips to rise ever so discretely in spite of the stiff upper lip.

Sorry but I'm having trouble staying focussed on this Guido guy.

 

[Angeline]

Blowing your cover on a Jersey beach is a dire problem. I am however reminded of a conversation about "bikinis of our youth" that is causing the corners of my lips to rise ever so discretely in spite of the stiff upper lip.

Sorry but I'm having trouble staying focussed on this Guido guy.

Bikinis of your youth? You had a bikini? I'd like to see that. I had a Hawaiian-looking one. What was yours like?

You can't stay focused on Guido because he knocked you unconscious in my fantasy.

 

[champagne1982]

...<snip>P.S.
Regarding honourary Canadian status, I should focus on proper spelling rather than hockey. As I recall the present Queen of the Netherlands spent a period of exile in Ottawa so there is certainly strong precedent.

I looked it up. Honourable isn't a word in the Oxford Dictionary...

 

[darkmaas]

It is in mine.

Concise Oxford Dictionary 1982 edition page .... oops .... now don't we look foolish.

Sorry Tzara

 

[champagne1982]

Oh dear. D'maas in bikini with his u hangin' out of his honoraries; quel image!
(or is that fromage )

 

[Tzara]

It is in mine.

Concise Oxford Dictionary 1982 edition page .... oops .... now don't we look foolish.

Sorry Tzara

'Tis no matter, sir, you need not apologize. I know I have a pronounced southern Vancouver accent, both in writing and in speech. Though I might, in my pushy immigrant way, point out that yer own McGill University makes the distinction between the spelling of honour and honorary here.

But, this is a moot point. I have already passed your apparently slip-shod immigration requirements and attained my "honourary" Canadian citizenship, courtesy of your country's Internet embassy.

Flush with my not-so-hard-won status, I now am enthusiastically hunting beaver tails.

 

[champagne1982]

Just take a quick pop-over to this rather entertaining site The Maple Leaf Forever (I liked the lil leaf cursor)