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Monday 21 January 2019

Poetry Monday, Suddenly Resuscitated . . .

Delores, over at Mumblings, decided to give Poetry Monday some CPR while Diane is gone. She suggested the topic "ice and snow" for anyone who wants to have a go at a poem this week. Right now I've got plenty of both right outside the door.

But . . . as happens so often, my mind went wandering off by itself, and I didn't notice because I was too busy putting on extra socks to stay warm, and the poor feeble thing ended up in . . . THE FREEZER?? WHAT THE HECK . . .??

This one's for my friends in Australia, who are suffering from terrible heat right now. And anyone else, anywhere else, who is doing the same -- or will be, in six months from now, as the world turns some more.

*****

To Every Thing There Is A Season

Too many suppertimes
Pulling out the frozen veggies
Or the oven-baked French fries
From the freezer
And stuffing half-empty bags back in

Too many grocery days
Flinging the new frozen goods
Haphazardly
Into the same
Cold cave

Eventually
All I can see
In there
Is
A frozen icy mess

And then it's time to
Organize
Use up
And - alas -
Sometimes discard

It's a cold job
Not a good thing to do
In winter
When I'm already
Frozen stiff

The solution is obvious
Put the job off
Until summer

Store the food
In a picnic cooler
While slowly --
Very slowly --
Rummaging
And cleaning
And savouring the cold
On a miserably hot day

(I might even stick my whole head in)


But don't forget to wear your mittens in the freezer. It's hard to explain frostbite in mid-summer.

*****

MESSAGE FOR DELORES:

It must be my turn now!

Next Monday, your mission/topic (should you choose to accept it) is . . . SOCKS . . .

Heh heh heh

Have a great week, everyone :)







42 comments:

Red said...

Good angle on the ice and snow thing. Freezers can get pretty ugly.

Elephant's Child said...

Thank you.
At the moment when we go to the supermarket I hang over the freezer - with a huge smile on my fat face. Cooking is minimal here at the moment but perhaps I will spend some time organizing our overstuffed freezer.

River said...

Very nice poem, thanks for making me laugh :)
My freezer is on the small side, so it's hard for anything to get lost in there, Bought frozen meals are neatly stacked and home made frozen meals are labelled and dated, with the oldest dates always getting used first. it's a frost free freezer, part of the fridge, so there's no ice build up thank goodness.

dinthebeast said...

It feels freezing here too, although it's not. Raining, though, so we missed seeing the eclipse.
Also, don't feed black olives to the cat.
Just saying...
We have one bag of old frozen vegetables in the back of the freezer, but they aren't ours and that's my excuse for just leaving them there. Also, what do you do with edamame anyway?
Have a good week if you can.

-Doug in Oakland

only slightly confused said...

I'll get my head out of the freezer and comtemplate the warm fuzzyness of SOCKS.....Diane is missing out on a lot of fun. Hope that vacation was worth it lol.

Joanne Noragon said...

Mittens in the freezer? Gloves would work better, I think. It's the finger thing.

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

I found two year old pork chops in my freezer recently. That gives you an idea as how often I clean it out. It is always a maƱana job.

jenny_o said...

They sure can. Especially if they're not the "frost-free" type!

jenny_o said...

The big problem with enjoying supermarket freezers is that a person is dressed for the heat, not the cold, and it can raise goosebumps!

Cooking in the summer doesn't happen much here, either. And when it does, I try to cook for several meals at once. A big pot of potatoes or pasta will make a lot of potato or pasta salad

jenny_o said...

You sound very organized, River. I start out with good intentions but before I know it everything is a shambles :)

jenny_o said...

We had rain, too, so no moon for us either!

I had to Google "cats black olives" to find out why . . . there are some things that cats shouldn't have and I came across that info too. I didn't know about onions until a commenter here mentioned it.

I've had edamame and really liked it. It's quite mild, which is how I like my food. Someone with different taste buds (cough *my husband for instance* cough) would feel quite differently :)

jenny_o said...

Hahaha! Oh I think Diane is having lots of fun of a different kind! Wouldn't you rather be in a warm place right now? lol But we're doing pretty well keeping ourselves entertained, it's true :)

jenny_o said...

Yes, it goes slower if you have mittens on, but in the summertime, that's the point! ha ha

jenny_o said...

I am not at all appalled by that, as I've found things much more ancient in my freezer.

Maybe I shouldn't be admitting that. lol

I hope you're feeling better today, Arleen. I saw your comment on John's blog that you weren't feeling well.

Marie Smith said...

Sounds like our freezer!

Joan (Devon) said...

Hello Jenny, I posted a comment and my poem for this week, but I don't think it went through. I'll check tomorrow and do it again if need be.

jenny_o said...

I think many of us have the same issue!

jenny_o said...

It didn't arrive, Joan. Sometimes it takes a bit of time for comments to publish, I've found - not just on this site but others too. I think when a comment has gone through, there should be a small notice or message saying "your comment has gone to moderation" or something similar. Have you ever noticed that? Until that shows up, the comment is out there in the air somewhere!

dinthebeast said...

I can't comment on this blog (or Harry's) from Firefox and have to launch Opera to get it to go through.
On my old computer there were blogs that Firefox wouldn't let me comment on, and it was frustrating because it didn't show anything was wrong while you were typing, and when you pushed "publish" it just disappeared. On that machine using the Microsoft browser got it to work, but on this one it doesn't.
In Firefox now, it won't recognize that I'm signed into my Google account and after the "Reply as" prompt it just says "Google account" , whereas in Opera where it works, it has my email handle.
I don't know if that was helpful or not, but I thought I would say something in case it was.

-Doug in Oakland

The Happy Whisk said...

That was fun to read and by the way, it's FREEZING here today but ever so bright and filled with sun. Really, really pretty. But soon enough it will be hot again. I don't mind. I like the heat. Cheers and boogie boogie.

jenny_o said...

Oh, wow - that's way more complicated than I had realized. Thanks for the info, Doug. I hope Joan might find something in there to help her.

jenny_o said...

The sun is good on a cold day, isn't it? And you can have my share of the heat if you want :D

Martha said...

So much fun! And I'm reminded that I should straighten out my freezer :) We are VERY COLD over here but that's okay. January is almost done. We just need to get through the next month and spring will be on its way! Look at me being all optimistic and stuff today...haha...

Joan (Devon) said...

Thank you Doug for trying to help, but computers and all the associated words leave me totally confused. If anything goes wrong I just pass it all over to my husband, who usually sorts it out.

Obviously it didn't go through, so I will try again Jenny, although it will be much later as we have our youngest grand-daughter here soon and that is when bedlam happens.

kylie said...

It really is hot here and my freezer really needs a clean out but clearing stuff out requires decision making....and reorganising....and it's too hot for that!

Thanks for thinking of us, we have a couple of cool (er) days coming and back up to blistering att he end of the week

bazza said...

It was 0 degrees centigrade when I took my granddaughter to school last week. She said, "Grandad, I could get into the fridge to warm up because it's set at 3 degrees!"
CLICK HERE for Bazza’s foolishly fastidious
Blog ‘To Discover Ice’

Cherie said...

The weathers turning very cold
My bones all ache I'm getting old
I think tonight my hearts desire
would be to sit next to the fire
But out to carving club we'll go
And pray it doesn't flippin snow.... :-)

Joan (Devon) said...

Hello Jenny, here again. As I said on my previous comment I/we don't need to get our hands icy cold and wet as we have a frost free fridge/freezer. It used to be such a major job to do, but now it is much easier and I would recommend them to anyone.

My poem today is another Forgotten Verse published in one of our national newspapers many years ago. It is a verse about snow being the feathers of a dove, or perhaps the down from some white bird which has died in the heavens. It is by Edward Thomas (1878-1917).

Snow

In the gloom of whiteness,
In the great silence of snow,
A child was sighing
And bitterly saying, "Oh,
They have killed a white bird up there in the nest,
The down is fluttering from her breast!"
And still it fell through the dusky brightness
On the child crying for the bird of the snow.

Have a good week. I can't imagine what can be done with socks apart from wear them, lol.

jenny_o said...

I'm starting to picture you as standing behind Old Man Winter with a tennis racket, whacking away at him to get moving, Martha!

It's good to be optimistic! Don't stop :)

jenny_o said...

It's funny how anything that takes brainpower can also make you hot, right? I'm the same way. That must mean that thinking burns calories!! Yay :)

I really feel for you folks as I mind the heat and ours isn't even as bad as yours.

jenny_o said...

That's funny - and true! That's a clever girl you've got there :)

jenny_o said...

Hahaha! I love it, Cherie!

jenny_o said...

That poem is new to me - thank you for that. The rhyme scheme is interesting, and although a bit sad, it makes a very vivid picture.

"Socks" is pretty random, isn't it! I'm waiting for my brain to direct me where to go with that :)

kylie said...

I'd probably hate your cold!

jenny_o said...

It's not so bad if you are dressed for it adequately. It's invigorating! And it helps your sinuses after being in a heated house the rest of the time :)

Steve Reed said...

Well, THAT's a creative take on ice and snow, for sure. :)

jenny_o said...

Once there WAS actual snow in our freezer - the kids brought in a snowball to store there :)

The Happy Whisk said...

Yeah, it's nice to be out and shovel when the sun is up but also, I really, really love shoveling in the quiet early mornings before the winds pick up. It's just so quiet and beautiful then.

baili said...

Our fridge is overstuffed often but not freezer as we both believe in buying fresh fish and meat of all kind

Poem made me smile:)
Not mittin or socks but once I put " cell phone " in fridge and looked all over in the house
We finally were on conclusion that we lost it
Next day I discovered it in bag of coriander lol

Sending you lots and lots of love and warm hugs!!!

jenny_o said...

In the fridge!! LOL! I bet you laughed :)

Thank you for the love and hugs - sending mine back to you, baili :)

Diane Henders said...

I like your poem - it made me chuckle! I've been watching my freezer-cave gradually build up ice this winter, and I've decided to wait until summer to defrost. I figure if I keep using food steadily out of it, I'll never miss the slowly-decreasing space; and it'll be easier to defrost when I have to take less things out of it. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!) ;-)

jenny_o said...

That's actually the better plan - less waste, less work - a win all around!