Sunday, March 18, 2012

pepper and so forth...


R.A.D. Stainforth contemplates pepper...




Pepper


It's not just about flavor,
but a rewarding crunch,
as copper grinds heaven
over everything consumable
with gravel-jolt and halt.

I suppose the whole idea
of cracked peppercorns
started before the Spice Wars
and the creaky Dutch ships
loaded with putrid meat,

back in the Garden of Eden,
when Abel discovered
the best companion to salt,
accidentally crushing it
between unsuspecting rocks.



tk/March 2012




image: Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison
Join The Mag creative writing group

62 comments:

  1. My husbands favourite spice....I can just imagine the look on the face of the first person to taste pepper..."Agh..water, water.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A delightful read as always, Tess.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You've heightened the spice of life with this..excellent!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awesome post as always Miss Tess!.. It is when i arrived here in Canada that pepperand salt are on the table. Back home we have it in while cooking. Kind of a small thing but something new for me...

    Have a great week ahead...

    JJRod'z

    ReplyDelete
  5. a humorous take on the pepper grinder photo. LOL. What an imagination you have Tess. A poem about pepper!

    And interesting to see RD's room behind him.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am always amazed at the myriad of angles people see in the same image.
    Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Such an imaginative take on the image! Well done (as always...)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love R.A.D.'s exaggerated tongue-in-cheek seriousness here...he nailed it...and I laughed out loud at "putrid meat"...

    ReplyDelete
  9. How do you know that's my room?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, whose is it then?! Tell them their plant needs watering....

      Delete
  10. Pepper and spice led to the trade with the East. So says history. What is important is it spiced our life. Very well depicted in the image!

    Hank

    ReplyDelete
  11. Pepper is my favorite spice, and I'm doing all I can to enjoy it before doctors find something wrong with it, like they did to my beloved salt.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Fabulous poem Tess and once heard by R A D will forever sound out his particular gravel-jolt and halt phrasings.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ouch, Tess! that part about Abel and "unsuspecting". You "hit" the nail on the head, didn't you!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is a nice way to "spice up" your blog.

    Well done, Miss Tess.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Fabulous imagery. I love the way you connected Cain, Able and salt. Amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  16. It was suggested on Facebook that perhaps Cain discovered sugar...giggle...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Delightful!

    And is reading of it? Impeccable!

    =)

    ReplyDelete
  18. make that "his" reading of it.

    *sigh*

    Someday, I will give in to proofreading.

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Great take on the photo prompt.

    ReplyDelete
  20. smiles...i like my fresh ground pepper....well spiced piece tess...

    ReplyDelete
  21. I could live without the fresh, black, cracked stuff of life, but pepper makes my life sing. Thanks for the tasteful prompt this week, lovely lady. I will share your poem with my grandson. He cannot believe all the pepper I consume. =D

    ReplyDelete
  22. I love your spicy take on the photo! That is a LOT of pepper! Must be a pretty big steak au poivre!

    ReplyDelete
  23. One of my favorite spices...I hope his grinder works better than my peuny little one. Imaginative, Tess!

    ReplyDelete
  24. A wonderful poem, full of sounds and smells.

    ReplyDelete
  25. LOL!!!

    ever see the saturday night live pepperboy skit? reminded me of that

    snl pepperboy skit

    angular acceleration

    ReplyDelete
  26. The SNL pepperboy is too funny (!)...thanks Zongrik...

    ReplyDelete
  27. Rich and fulfilling Mag indeed! I love the Dutch putrid meat reference...

    ReplyDelete
  28. "a rewarding crunch" ... really like the sound in this; I love the range of topics covered in the poem, an illustration of the varied foods on which pepper is a welcome sprinkling; great reference to the beginning of pepper-love with the Abel mention

    rosemarymint.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  29. Full of flavour and texture! Of course this applies to both pepper and your poem. I like the "unsuspecting rocks".

    ReplyDelete
  30. The whole world is a pepper crusher.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I love cracked pepper, this is so good! :-D

    ReplyDelete
  32. Very clever response to prompt. I'm glad you are not caught in the cracks! K.

    ReplyDelete
  33. A most wonderful spice of life!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Could this tiny man be stamding on a humungous peppercorn, which he is tryimg to crack himself ?

    ReplyDelete
  35. An unusual view of an unusual illustration.

    ReplyDelete
  36. I use cracked pepper on practically everything I eat. But I would never have come up with pepper for this image.....and I am so glad you did because I needed to see it in a different way than I unfortunately did!

    What a treat to watch R.A.D. Stainforth read this poem. I didn't think it could get better than hearing his readings of your poems, but I was wrong! You two are an amazing team.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Rocks are good and so are gears! thanks-

    ReplyDelete
  38. Thanks Lydia...look for Stainforth's video as a regular feature at Willow Manor!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Some of the most amazing discoveries have been stumbled upon....love this Tess! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  40. a brilliant idea, these wheels can be seen in so many ways.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Nothing like the flavor of freshly ground pepper. Hmmm....perhaps Adam did discover this!! Really enjoyed this clever piece!

    ReplyDelete
  42. Ah, I will never hold my peppercorn grinder with disregard again! I loved the video and reading - such a treat! Thanks for the Magpie prompt... now I feel I didn't put enough thought into it... Oh well there is next week. :)

    ReplyDelete
  43. Stanza 3 is nice. I am enjoying picturing Able discovering the joys of pepper.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Pepper with all the sights and sounds. Always an adventure!

    ReplyDelete
  45. Full of admiration for the way you were able to spin that out of the prompt.

    ReplyDelete
  46. You never fail to entertain. Thanks you.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Thank you so very much for your comments, dear friends. You make sharing my poems so very rewarding.

    ReplyDelete
  48. such a brilliant take to the photo. kudos.

    ReplyDelete
  49. I like this. There's nothing like the grinding of pepper (except of course the taste) and I really like the way this poem and image make it almost mythical. Very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  50. R.A.D. can crack my peppercorns any day of the week. Yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  51. Dear Tess: Spicy~ I love the "creaky Dutch ships" and the "rewarding crunch" of pepper; Adam was one spicy guy~the read was over the top Ronaldo~!

    ReplyDelete
  52. oh so funny ... a totally different take then what I expecting, but just so fine ... it's amazing the number of gears that become apparent, isn't it? Good prompt as always Tess - good poem also.

    http://nsaynne.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/the-rip/

    ReplyDelete
  53. A delicious thought Marcheline ... yes perhaps a little over the top chiccoreal ... thank you both ... and big thanks to Tess who allows me to read her poems ...

    ReplyDelete
  54. salt and pepper.. that is what my six year old loves..

    ReplyDelete
  55. This has a most rewarding crunch to it. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)