January 17, 2014

Poetry Friday--Pie Poetry by Popular Demand...

...okay, maybe not "popular demand," but I did get a request last week for a pie haiga from Jama Rattigan. Jama had a delicious post featuring Kate Lebo's A Commonplace Book of Pie. If you missed it, click here. In response to my comment, Jama wrote, "I’d love to see you do a pie haiga sometime."

I'm not one to turn down a challenge, but I realized I already had several pie haiga in my files:


1899 photo courtesy Library of Congress.


1921 pie eating contest photo courtesy Library of Congress.

So as not to feel like I was cheating, I wanted to create a new haiga for Jama, but as my mother was always fond of saying, "the best laid plans of mice and men do oft go awry." This poem, not a haiku, came almost unbidden, and who am I to say, "no, I need a haiku today"?

Painting by Carl Eduard Schuch courtesy The Athenaeum, cropped to fit the poem.

All poems above © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Head down Mississippi way to visit with Keri at Keri Recommends for the Poetry Friday Round-Up.
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26 comments:

  1. Donna SmithJanuary 17, 2014 at 7:13 AM

    That is a beautiful tribute to both pie, your heritage and your (I assume) mother or grandmother! And done so beautifully on the image. It would make a nice gift to family members who remember the pies!

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  2. Diane MayrJanuary 17, 2014 at 8:11 AM

    Thanks, Donna. I do like the way the poem and the simple painting worked together.

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  3. jamaJanuary 17, 2014 at 8:39 AM

    *thunderous applause*

    Okay, you've sent me straight to pie heaven with this post. What wonderful word and image pairings. APPLE PIE -- poignant and revealing, a lovely tribute and bit of family history. Love the last stanza especially; it was unexpected but so real, a treasured tidbit hidden under the crust. :)

    I hope you realize that now I must have some apple pie this weekend . . .

    Thanks, Diane!

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 17, 2014 at 9:01 AM

      Apple pie should definitely be on the menu! Now, if I could just get someone to bake one for me...

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  4. Linda BJanuary 17, 2014 at 8:58 AM

    Interesting how those words arrive, more memories than you imagined, more peeling away of layers to investigate who you are. I love the middle verse, Diane, "did it merely validate/the ascerbic already in me?" I'm happy Jama asked you to write a pie poem, but also like the others above, too!

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 17, 2014 at 9:03 AM

      The ones above are definitely more fun! Especially that pie eating contest one!

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  5. Michelle Heidenrich BarnesJanuary 17, 2014 at 9:02 AM

    A delicious selection today, Diane! Your tastes may lean toward sour, but your words are most definitely sweet.

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 17, 2014 at 9:05 AM

      I like my apple pie sour, but I do also like a bit of sweet taffy.

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  6. Author AmokJanuary 17, 2014 at 9:15 AM

    The blueberry and peach haiga are great examples of trusting your reader to make connections. Isn't it amazing how cooking immediately connects us to family history?

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 17, 2014 at 5:54 PM

      Yes, it does, and that's a topic that's always interested me. Has it been a theme at Little Patuxent Review?

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  7. Robyn Hood BlackJanuary 17, 2014 at 9:47 AM

    Diane, you never do anything half-baked. I'm so glad Jama tossed you an oven mitt - these are wonderful (and I'm not surprised you had some pie haiga already in your files!)
    I do love the new poem, but your "grandma's album" I'll carry around in my mind/heart for a while... thanks for sharing all of these!

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 17, 2014 at 5:56 PM

      It was amazing to me that I had so many pie haiga! I have to admit, I do love pie, I just don't eat it often.

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  8. TabathaJanuary 17, 2014 at 10:05 AM

    I love every one of these, Diane! Delicious :-)

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  9. Carmela MartinoJanuary 17, 2014 at 5:14 PM

    I love so much about your Apple Pie poem, Diane, especially the last line. >>we came to love the sour<<. Scrumptious post!

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 17, 2014 at 5:59 PM

      Thanks, Carmela. I like it too, but, 6 months from now I'll probably want to rewrite it!

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  10. TaraJanuary 17, 2014 at 7:29 PM

    July and blueberries, my idea of heaven! I love that last stanza, Diane - coming to love the sour. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or taster...it's whatever was imprinted first, and how, that makes something beloved, right?

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 17, 2014 at 10:38 PM

      Right, Tara. Many taste preferences are a result of early exposure. And many taste dislikes may be a result of something unpleasant that happened while eating, and the food becomes associated with the unpleasantness, really has nothing to do with the taste. For example, when I was young I ate some butterscotch hard candy. I developed a headache and to this day, I don't eat butterscotch candies.

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  11. Gillena CoxJanuary 18, 2014 at 10:06 AM

    Diane your pie post is (◕‿◕｡) delicious

    much love...

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 18, 2014 at 6:52 PM

      Thanks, Gillena! What kind pie is popular in T & T?

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  12. JoneJanuary 18, 2014 at 1:27 PM

    I am now hungry from pie! Thanks, Diane.

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 18, 2014 at 6:52 PM

      It's been a while since I've had a piece of pie. I could go for some right now!

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  13. Bridget MageeJanuary 18, 2014 at 9:35 PM

    Mmmm pie! Your peach poem makes my mouth water. =)

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 18, 2014 at 9:44 PM

      Bridget, the only thing better than a ripe peach is pie made from ripe peaches!

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  14. Mary LeeJanuary 19, 2014 at 7:50 AM

    Here's another post that resonates with Laura S.'s beginning of the roundup -- it's how we tell the story. What a Big Truth that is!

    Here's what my writerly inquiring mind wants to know -- how do you catalog all of your poetry so that you can (effortlessly?) pluck out the pie poems?

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    1. Diane MayrJanuary 19, 2014 at 10:06 AM

      Ha, ha, Mary Lee, no cataloging involved. You'll notice that all the poems I included are haiga. I have haiga in 2 photo files on my hard drive (before 8/13 and after 8/13--that's the date when one file was getting too unwieldy, so I started a 2nd one). It's really easy to browse through the photos. Otherwise, keeping track of haiku, which are untitled, is a nightmare!

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