April is National Poetry Month, a monthlong, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. To mark the occasion, Tinian English teacher Joseph Connolly and an anonymous contributor submitted the following poems for publication:<\/p>\n
Fun with food: Scrumptious Sonnets When I heard of the demise of Hostess Twinkies I thought, \u201cOh no!\u201d There goes another edible icon of my childhood. When we went to see my Aunt Margaret in Philadelphia, us five brothers and sisters couldn\u2019t wait to buy some Tandy Takes\u2014two small cream filled cupcakes on a cardboard tray. I\u2019ve heard Twinkies are coming back, though, along with a chocolate drink called Yoohoo. Next I want Fudgcicles and Creamsicles\u2014creamy frozen confections\u2014to make a reappearance. The Demise of French Fried Cutie Pies will have to do \u2019til then. <\/p>\n Diners At the Big Miss Steak Cafe is about a small restaurant in a time warp where notorious couples drop by for a bite to eat. The menu is global and eclectic in its contents. A few diners readers may not recognize in the caf\u00e9 are: Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who wrote the consummate book on eating; Federico Fellini, a famous 20th century Italian film director (think La Strada and La Dolce Vita); Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas hosted the expatriate literary scene in Paris (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Samuel Beckett, and Ernest Hemingway, among others). Among other edible items included in their literary salon along with tea were marijuana brownies. <\/p>\n The sonnet What\u2019s for Dessert? provides the stock answer my father actually gave us kids at the dinner table about dessert when we asked for dessert and there was none to be had. We had (PB&J) peanut butter and jelly sandwiches almost every day for school lunch for years. They were always made with Welch\u2019s grape jelly, white Pullman loaf bread, wrapped in wax paper, and placed inside a brown paper lunch bag. No cafeteria at our elementary schools. So a sonnet with fond affection for them, On Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches. Last but not least, The Cleanest Cockroach in the World meets its demise in our kitchen.<\/p>\n THE DEMISE of FRENCH FRIED CUTIE PIES<\/p>\n Bully for bakers, bakeries and fried cream filled pies DINERS AT the BIG MISS STEAK CAFE\u2019<\/p>\n Antony and Cleopatra – Mr. and Mrs. Hannibal – Pres. Dwight D. and Mamie Eisenhower – President U.S. Grant and First Lady Grant – Emperor and Empress Genghis Khan – Monsieur et Madame Brillat-Savarin – Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Meyer – Medusa and the Abominable Snowman – The Minotaur and the Yeti – Dr. and Mrs. Sigmund Freud – Director and Mama Federico Fellini – Stephen Hawking dined alone – Albert Einstein and E=MC2 shared – Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Guiseppi Canoli and Miss Muffelata – WHAT\u2019S FOR DESSERT ?<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s for dessert?\u201d I heard my brother ask ON PEANUT BUTTER and JELLY SANDWICHES<\/p>\n Synchronicity found in this sandwich, The peanut butter, creamy or crunchy In synch they are all terrific tasty creations THE CLEANEST COCKROACH in the WORLD<\/p>\n the cleanest cockroach in the world I speared it with a toothpick it died quickly and it died clean that roach was as big as my thumb So Mr. Clean cockroach is dead and gone *** By A PACIFIC ISLANDER<\/p>\n As I look out across the glimmering blue sea April is National Poetry Month, a monthlong, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[331,163,21,57],"class_list":["post-32861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-and-style","tag-attack","tag-kids","tag-life","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>
\nBy JOSEPH B. CONNOLLY
\nSpecial to the Saipan Tribune<\/p>\n
\nFor the delight of putting them in our mouth to swallow
\nFor sugared donuts baked, fried and filled to the brim
\nWith different fillings, jellies, flavors, shapes and size
\nLiquids, hot coffee, tea, iced lemonade to follow
\nLingering sights and smells after the day grows dim
\nComfort foods continue from meringues to muffins
\nSweet potato curly fries and WallaWalla onion rings
\nGourmet chips, garlic dips and corn dogs to stuff in
\nClogging up those veins for a massive heart attack
\nWhat did you expect after eating al those things?
\nAs the gluttonous curtain closes and fades to black
\nThink Moon Pie mortality and Grim Reaper song
\nAs those rolls of fat appear before not too long<\/p>\n
\nHe suggested trying the Italian ices
\nShe ordered cheetah and lion liver slices
\nThey fed on each others vices<\/p>\n
\nShe had the alpine appetizer
\nHe drank an elephantine energizer
\nThey fought tooth, molar, and incisor<\/p>\n
\nShe got White House waffles and drank a lemon lime
\nHe had silver dollar pancakes thin as an Eisenhowere dime
\nTogether they talked about the covers of Time<\/p>\n
\nHe said give me any beef steak that hollers
\nShe said that might cost us fifty U.S. dollars
\nThey suffered the heat in horse hair collars<\/p>\n
\nShe said horse and yak cheese on rye
\nHe had Mongolian stir fry
\nFor dessert they shared a barn swallow pie<\/p>\n
\nShe poured a pot of chamomile tea
\nHe uncorked a bottle of chablis
\nThey snacked on camembert and brie<\/p>\n
\nShe toiled over creamy egg custard
\nHe boiled hot dogs with mustard
\nThey fed on what you just heard<\/p>\n
\nShe wanted ratatouille and rattlesnakes
\nHe had corn, fish, and snowflakes
\nThey consumed carotid artery cakes<\/p>\n
\n\u2018It\u2019 said whatever is under the rock
\nthe \u2018other\u2019 said any lamb or beef stock
\nThey fed on a Canadian geese flock<\/p>\n
\nShe ordered pretzel sticks and ice cream
\nHe dished up a daylight dream
\nAs they viewed Edvard Munch\u2019s \u2018SCREAM\u2019<\/p>\n
\nShe had spinach and fromaggio rigatoni
\nHe gobbled prosciutto and canneloni
\nLater on lambrusco, biscotti, and spumoni<\/p>\n
\nHe grilled time over cosmic coals
\nAnd baked the Milky Way in a galactic oven
\nFilled with black holes<\/p>\n
\nA spatial soup of solar storm storks
\nA sequence of Fibonacci forks
\nAnd roasted quail, quirks, and quarks<\/p>\n
\nCountless cups of tempestuous tea
\nRadish and rose petal salads times three
\nFresh French breads and bellwether poetry<\/p>\n
\nEnsalada di Alessandro Scarlatti
\nCurds and whey ala Gian Carlo Menotti
\nAngel hair pasta di Cecilia Bartolli<\/p>\n
\nOn his third cup of coffee, Daddy said,
\n\u201cYou kids get to work, I\u2019ll give you a task.
\nBe grateful we\u2019ve got milk, butter and bread.\u201d
\nWe were dreaming of chocolate chip cookies,
\nSeven layer Black Forest cherry cake,
\nButterscotch ice cream, lemon sherbert freeze,
\nOr a thick chocolate malted milk shake;
\nBanana pudding, apple rhubarb pies,
\nWalnut fudge brownies enormous in size,
\nOrange Jell-O, fruit salad, nuts in a cup…
\nDad continued, \u201cAs soon as you\u2019re able
\nI want you and your brother to get up,
\nClear the dishes and desert the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWhere seemingly disparate food fillings lie
\nSide by side like slime on mud in a ditch
\nBetween slices of bread as if in a pie<\/p>\n
\nIf applied when there is heat in the bread
\nMakes the sandwich so melting good munchy
\nLets the jam or jelly easily spread<\/p>\n
\nThese jams, preserves, marmalades, and jellies:
\nGrape, plum, cherry, or berry combinations,
\nSome made at home with pectin and spices,
\nAdd peanut butter and two bread slices,
\nTo put these lunch time treats in your bellies.<\/p>\n
\nemerged from my kitchen sink today
\ncrawling out with its antennae curled
\nand a pine soap scented bouquet<\/p>\n
\npoked through its thorax I guess
\npitched it into the garbage with a flick
\ndown with the rest of the kitchen mess<\/p>\n
\nbut left many of its cousins behind
\nthey grow so fast it\u2019s almost obscene
\non breadcrumbs and watermelon rind<\/p>\n
\nwouldn\u2019t fit in any roach trap hotels
\nits clever cousins are not so dumb
\nfalling under no magic formula spells<\/p>\n
\nmy old stainless steel sink now shines
\nand on some insect\u2019s heavenly lawn
\na fine smelling cockroach now dines<\/p>\n
\nPains of Paradise<\/p>\n
\nMy heart is heavy with worry of what might come to be
\nAs the ocean with its continuous tides and flow
\nMy mind thinks back to a time when life was good it made me hopeful
\nAs the low tide comes as sure as can be
\nMy soul searches and yearns for my conscience to be clear and free
\nAs the high tide will also return eventually
\nMy dream lives on to live a life with more moments of peace and tranquility<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"