Spanakopita time

Spanakopita time

water pours off her sides
as she rises tall as a giraffe
with cliffs steep
out of the azure Aegean Sea
even taller now
that molten magma
pushes her surface higher
elevates the cafe conversation
calls for more sugar in the coffee -megalo!

O Thera of dramatic heights
there is no island more
nor rugged shore
as yours!

night falls
church bells call
the flame from inside
to candle passed to light candle  
to next candle light
Orthodox priests in black
with full beards swing cauldrons of myrth incense
add smoke to the acrid air
announce Chisto Anesti (again)
the populus, her earth 51/2 inches higher than last year

service over
¼ sticks of dynamite are lit and heaved over
the town wall to explode
a thick black powder cloud
envelopes the church
children tear open plastic bags of toys
feast begins
tripe soup
krassi & nero to revive
laughter & fingers grasp
red eggs to crack together
trays of spanakopita in waiting
time to eat now
ahead of tourist hordes
& money making travails
before the donkeys have to begin their climbs
cinder vineyards of Atlantis
lay bare before May flowers

Poem de Résistance

My spanakopita is frozen
not in poetic form but
taken now over two meals
heated precisely in two
different locations both
seemingly for the same
gastric highway although
can we step into the same
gastric highway twice?

Distaste prompts me from
suggestions to find a muse
where no muse beckons

What and who am I?
Immunity from within?

I find the smallest of spiders
traveling across my mousepad
and instantly gather this one
to a more hospitable place
an outside where larger webs
may or may not be more sure
than this virtual web where
words both run along fluffy lines
and catch on self sticky strands

alignments / cupping moonflower as she flies

every nightmorning the apple branch (for a moment) holds the moon.

today at 6:04am she grasps the mighty light:

a waning saucer, cup-up.

the birds in the shape of bone

in my back don't click with rib discs just so.

how to make a nest that fits?

disk of moon, ribs, discus of delight

align me wholly, inner sight.

gyre and reach, palm of bone

click with wings and come on home.

align me whole like lego spine

unbend the ribs as fork and tine.

forge me a nest of wings for flight

so i reach up and hold moonlight. 

become the apple tree

pink with sunrise.

reach to cup the

moon as she flies.

[spanakopita form]

Bedbug

Dreams bubble out your lips—

a-hunting you go—

            plip, plip, plip…

I pull blankets, groan and itch,

scrawny bitch.

In dream, what your tongue gets at,

strong as your breath

Scrat, scrat, scrat…

Your powdered self makes me wheeze.

There’ve been fleas.

Dreaming, you begin to bark,

fearsome, feral—

            quark, quark, quark…

You are midnight’s burping duck—

I wake—the fuck?

You stir, feeling sticky,

give an earthquake:

            ricky, ricky, ricky…

Next time, our bug will have her crate.

This time, too late.

Prompt: Write a Spanakopita

A combination of fluff, spinach, and melty goodness....in layers. That's your assignment this week, write a spanakopita.

Photo from Fine Cooking

For each stanza,

First Layer/First Line - Some pastry: a line of fluff (vulnerability, flowery metaphor, etc.)

Second Layer/Second Line - Some spinach: a line of strength (think Pop-eye) - Or mentioning vegetables or plants gets you bonus points

Third Layer/ Third Line - Some cheese: a line of melty goodness (or high cheesiness)

Repeat these layers, and top (at the bottom) with something extra crunchy crispy. Perhaps a couplet.

The poem should leave the reader feeling sated, satisfied, fulfilled, enriched, nourished.

Tags: spanakopita, poem, [poet's moniker]

This is a novel poetic form that has a lasagna variant (less fluff, more meat). I know, you immediately want to write a lasagna instead, but don't. Start with some vulnerability, as proposed by Ted Talk famous social researcher

Brené Brown: The Power of Vunerability (Ted Talks) http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

Brené Brown: Listening to Shame (Ted Talks)

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame.html