Poetry Starter #1--Tomato Sandwiches

Tomato Sandwiches

Sister June's sandwiches held us
all the way to Houston from
the bus stop outside of Blessing.
A sliced tomato from her backyard garden,
laid lovingly atop two pieces of thick
white bread, crusts trimmed,
a thin coating of French's mustard
bought the day before
from Lazlo's Corner Store.
"Ain't no therefore about it," she claims.
And she places the sandwiches in a
brown paper bag along with a jar of
fresh figs. We suck on them
one at a time as the bus rolls
down the narrow road.
When you pray as mightily
as Sister June, tomato sandwiches
will hold you, will help you find
the way to go. "So much comes
from sand," she says. "So much
comes from sand."

Kathi Appelt

One morning my poet pal, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and I decided to give each other a "challenge." We concocted a list of words and phrases and then dared each other to write a poem using those words. "Tomato Sandwiches" was the result on my end. The words?

June
sister
sand
mustard
way to go
mightily
Houston
therefore

1. Make an arbitrary list of words, like the one above, and form a poem around them. Use ordinary, as well as extroadinary words. Be sure to put a place name in there.

2. We often connect food with events. There are the standard family occasions--Christmas dinner, the Passover seder, birthday celebrations--but there are smaller occasions too. These might include a romantic picnic, lunch with a friend, dinner on an airplane. Write a poem in which food plays a major part. Use lots of juicy, crispy, tasty words.

3. All of us have people in our lives who use odd phrases such as "ain't no therefore about it," that I ascribed to Sister June. Take a phrase or idiom and use that in a poem. Try using it as a first line and go from there.

Happy writing!

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Kathi