Featuring cherita!


August 31, 2017

Poetry Friday--Not "Arguing with Something Plato Said"

I was skimming through a listing of poems on The Poetry Foundation's website and came upon "Arguing with Something Plato Said" by Jack Collom. It stopped me short since I had mistakenly read it as "Arguing with Something Potato Salad"! [Click here for Collom's poem. I found it unreadable. That's just me, I have a short attention span. I prefer short and to the point, which Collom's poem is not. Perhaps you will love it?]

In any case, I decided I liked "my" title better and figured I'd better write a poem (short and to the point) to go with it. Not my easiest challenge, but potato salad brought to mind an invitation to a Cinco de Mayo party that I received many years ago--before Cinco de Mayo became another excuse for Americans to drink to excess. Here's a cherita sequence with a slightly altered title. (A cherita is a three-stanza poem that tells a story. The first stanza, one line, sets the scene. The second stanza has two lines, the third has three.)

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

No Arguing With Something Potato Salad-y

1
invitation

please, don't let it require
a costume

...even worse
a request to contribute
a potluck dish

2
always a catch

"please use a food native
to the Americas"

what kind of host
presumes guests will know
how to research?

3
potatoes

I might have thought
Ireland, but no

native to Peru
in the 16th century
introduced to Europe

4
purchase complete

five pounds of
Solanum tuberosum

there should be
no arguing with something
potato salad-y


The unusual party invitation did indeed request a dish made with a native ingredient. I made a potato salad, but I also added beans and corn--two other native foods. I should have argued with myself about something potato salad-y! It wasn't great, rather bland. If only I had added some heat, but that was a time before I became a fan of hot seasonings.

Kathryn Apel is hosting this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up--from Australia!

20 comments:

  1. You always take such an interesting angle - so I always come away inspired, Diane. Your potato salad may have been bland, but your poetry never is.

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    1. Thanks, Kat! I hope you're enjoying your first stint as Round-Up hostess.

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  2. Would you really rather wear a costume than make potato salad? I loved the genesis of this poem as much as the poem. Sometimes I read something and wonder, then read again. . . I have a pot luck coming, maybe something potato salad-y?

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    1. You can't go wrong with potato salad in my book. It's one of my comfort foods.

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  3. Oh my goodness - I've never heard of a hostess placing that kind of restriction on a pot luck, how very demanding, especially when you're already asking people to bring food!

    Alas my high school food safety classes have left me with a mortal terror of anything mayonnaise-based, so potato salads leave me shuddering (unless they swap out the mayo for vinegar, and which case I can breathe easy again). ;-)

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    1. Actually, with this particular host we would have been surprised if there wasn't something challenging in the invitation. I was also asked to write a short script! I wrote, and read aloud, a re-imagined folktale that the host animated with simple shadow puppets.

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  4. Ha--love that your mistaken reading led you to write this (I seem to be doing this more and more when I skim...) and that it came from a real life experience. Thanks for introducing another new form--will have to try writing a cherita.

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  5. Ha! I initially read your blog post title the same way you read the original poem title, so I was delighted to keep reading and get something with potato salad after all. Love the backstory, and the way you never back down from a challenge!

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    1. The only real challenges are the ones we give ourselves!

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  6. I love how one thing leads to another--especially such a fun poem about potato salad. Who knows where ideas will come from or lead to!

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    1. That's why I always love reading about or listening to the genesis of a poem.

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  7. So great! I like your version way better. And I think we are kindred spirits: I always say I'd rather be the keynote speaker at an event than to have to bring snacks!

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    1. Thanks, Ruth! It's always better when someone else brings the snacks!

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  8. Your description of the original was enough to keep me from following the link! Short and sweet R me, too!

    Your story via cherita sequence is just right! (What an invitation!)

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    1. I think it would be fun, though, to have a bunch of us read the poem and then discuss it. Poetry is one of those things that is short-changed in not being discussed. (Except in high school where poems are discussed to death and turn off the potential reader of poetry.)

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  9. Oh, my goodness....I love your sense of humor and I agree with you on all points. If a poem goes on and on....it loses me. I like short, to the point and with a nice twist. Sounds like a drink, no? ha! Great execution of a cherita. Every time I see you use one, I want to try. Although, I'm not sure I could do anything with potato salad like you have. It's great! Nice story, nice punchline. great job.

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  10. Who could ever argue with something "potato salad-y"? Love your poem, Diane, and the story of its origin. Thanks for sharing!

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  11. I never met a potato sal... a potato ANYTHING I didn't like, so no arguments from me!

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  12. I like your potato peruvian magnificence. I read the rollercoaster of the original inspiration and I liked: "turning babble to a soapy/ bubble up up & away until pop!/ goes the wizard" and "Back up a hemidemisecond!" I never knew Plato to inspire such a rage of foamy stream of consciousness.

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