Best Cooking Poems
Autumn begins with one fact,
Sounded by first egg to crack.
With eggs mixed In a batter,
The outcome won't matter
Because smoke is filling the shack.
Once our home was filled with love,
from God up above.
My kitchen had delicious foods cooking away,
as children played near by.
Many family and dear friends,
laughed and loved in my rooms of old.
One by one they went away,
all promising to come back someday.
My once pretty garden is now all weeds,
even the birds will not come near.
I'm A Forgotten Home,
I once was filled with love.
Rare Cooking This Fine Morn
To have deep-thoughts, dreams a poet slowly eats
Or spiced casseroles of ink-piggy feats?
Meals written on yellow paper to enjoy.
Chinese fried rice with steamed adjective soy!
Experience new dishes, of rare flavor
Spread like butterfly wings upon glazed ham.
Pour tasty hot liquid words to thus savor
Bluebird wings sprinkled in blackberry jam!
What ? No essays, delightful adverb desserts?
No pans of Poe-like raven-baked pies
Yes! And add in boiled rhymes and magpie tales
Booming baked echoes of Mobydick whales!
What next? Fiction, tasty mysterious spurts?
With deep fried fish and red-button from shirts.
What taste? Tonight toasted Spanish serenade
With sweetest Sangria spice red Kool-Aid!
To have deep-thoughts, dreams a poet slowly eats
Or spiced casserole of ink-piggy feats?
Meals written on yellow paper to enjoy.
Chinese fried rice with steamed adjective soy!
Robert J. Lindley
Rhyme, Lin 10/11
Syllable count
11 10 11 10 0 11 10 11 10 0 11 10 11 10 0 11 10 11 10 0 11 10 11 10
Total # Syllables: 223
Total # Words: 146
Note, a Lindley family tradition, I cook the last day of the old year..
I've already completed breakfast and got the idea to cook up something on paper..
Lunch is running a bit late...
I cook but no hurry, is my motto.
I endured burnt offerings at the table -
A meal ‘cooked’ by my mother in law
If I hadn’t been married her lovely son
I’d have walked straight out of the door!
I heaved at every charred mouthful
Smiled, and said the meal was ‘divine’
She told me she’d had cookery lessons
But her food was only fit to feed swine!
Is my poem just a fairy story
Or is it a clever allegory?
What Doesn’t Kill Us Contest
Sponsored by Laura Loo
74 words
02~24~17
Summer Cooking
Its summer time you know what that means,
We move the grill out for all to see.
Stainless Steel shining in the sun,
Five burners! Yea that’s the one!
Then the family comes over and the heat is on
You’re thinking to yourself “this is not fun”
Sweat is pouring down and rolling in your eyes,
And the smoke rises up to the sky.
Burgers and hot dogs fly off the grill,
You think to yourself when will they be fill?
Summer cooking in the hot sun,
I can’t wait until winter comes.
JSergi
7/4/2018
So versatile is the potato.
It’s orange; it’s yellow; it’s white; it’s sweet.
It’s baked or boiled; it’s mashed or fried.
It’s served with poultry, with fish or with meat.
I love to cook, and I have for you
three recipes for potato dishes.
Not too expensive, they’re easy and fast.
But best of all, they are most delicious!
A Tator Tot casserole I love to bake.
With my company, it’s always a hit.
Ground beef fried with onion is mixed with creamed soup
and the bag of tots! Bake with cheese over it!
From my childhood comes the twice baked potato.
I’m sure you’ve heard of it – bacon and cheese.
But try some canned tuna with canned green beans.
Top with good cheese; microwave; it’s a breeze.
Last is a recipe that I obtained
from the time that I spent in Madrid.
The Spanish omelet’s really big there.
This is a recipe that I “redid.”
I fry chopped potatoes and onions in oil.
Salt and pepper it; drain off the oil when gold.
Stir in lots of eggs till it’s moist and thick.
In omelet shapes this mixture should hold.
Onto a large griddle, pour each omelet shape.
Turn them like pancakes when each side is done
I’ve Americanized it by adding Tabasco,
melting cheese on it too; this food is so fun!
These are just three dishes made with potatoes.
I have many more. Do you think you could make
at least one of these I’ve described? Let me know!
And I hope you already know how to bake!
July 28, 2019
For Chantelle Anne Cooke's Cornucopia Cooking Poetry Contest
Around the corner and half a block away, the flavor would grab me, tie me up to some irresistible force, then drag my nose to the source of its home. The aroma that wafted in the air and up my whiffer was sweet and warm - rich with orchards of deliciousness and cascading with the buttery peachy-ness of what was to come. It knocked all other thoughts out of my realm and led me down a path of complete submission - surrendering like the energy of cold water on a hot skillet. With each step bringing me closer, my musing would swirl with the anticipation of that first ultra-luscious, gratifying juicy bite - the one that ever so longingly and lovingly would delightfully roll around on every palate of my watering mouth and lingering tongue only to succumb to gulping down the first chunk.
From the flour and water and salt
Her timeworn hands kneaded magic
A mystical mixture of love and fruit to concoct-
A pinch of this and that, nothing formally systematic.
This masterpiece was an untold legend that "rocked"
The socks off anyone and even rival the "Titanic"!
Her ritual was simple and deep rooted
As uncomplicated as a baby's grin.
"Easy as Pie" she mooted
And laughed while she hummed all the while.
Layering the rich sheets of goodness in a pan
From pie dough to peaches to butter and sugar
There was nothing in this world so simple or better than
My Aunt Grace's Peach Cobbler!
Shhhhh, here comes the Warden
He’s just about to open the door, Frank
Well, that’s good ‘cause I’ve been in this slammer too long!
and, it way too cold in here, Patty!
I never did ask you Frank, what are you in for?
Wrong time at the wrong grocery store, I guess,
before I knew it, I was in the big house, feels more
like an ice house. I was in solitary for while, frozen stiff
Then, I found myself here with you and Bangsy and Cherry.
You know Cherry, she’s Bangsy’s tomato!
She was picked fresh off the line and ended up in here!
Let me ask Olive, she’s been in here forever,
Hey Olive, when did Cherry get out?
I wouldn't talk about that too loudly, Patty,
she went to the counter!
Oh no!, not the counter, that’s death row for everyone!
If you hear them say they want to grill you Frank, don’t
believe it, it’s not what you think.
Bangsy never did come back!
Poor Bangsy, such a silly sausage!
Door’s open, this is it!
Bye Patty!
Guess it’s hamburger time for me
OH, sorry Patty!!!
I mean, I guess I’ve seen my last bun!
7/9/18
My Two German Beaux,On a TVCooking Show
Oh, how I love sauerbraten
and that divine apple strudel!
But it was even better to see
Guy Fieri with my two old German
Chicago beaux on his TV show!
Why, I nearly lost my noodle!
There they were,still very comely,
on the cooking channel.
Making a great German dinner
Why,I almost knocked my German
beer stein off the mantle!
I was thinking back to times in
Chicago of soccer games and
festive Deutsch holidays!
When we danced like their was
no tomorrow.
Who ever dreamed time would
pass so fast!
I felt like Alice in Wonderland
peering through a magical,
looking glass.
When I was young, never once
believing time would pass!
11-3-2019
Dedicated to Peter A, in Chicago,
who was the inspiration for this
work! Danke, my friend.
A barbequed jerk chicken
Saltfish and okra
Snapper & avocado
Fruit & rum cake with
Coconut ice-cream
Steel drium high
Fry!
In my college years, I tried to cook
N
D
I employed Betty Crocker's cookbook
G
E
S
T
If I truly had learned,
B
I'd make meals that aren't burned
L
Ick, they taste even worse than they look!
T
Y
Written 9 Nov 2020
My kitchen will hold the key,
love like warm oven brie.
Too many cooks here so flee,
this is my holiday plea.
Only one needed cook bee,
with dinner and hot tea.
The broth must not taste like the sea,
but with a touch of glee.
if i'm a judge
then don't
judge me
i will sip
a bit of
this
one and then a bit
of that and then
all the others
six at hand
or should
i say
at mouth and tongue
soups alphabetically
which have different
degrees of tastes
after all how
does one
take a taste of haiku
and try to compare
au contraire to
that spicy free
verse not even
melodically
sonorous to the palate
of course simply
a first course
not to even
be paired
with any
whine
yet shall i dine on as tis
my duty to decide that
which is the best
recipe needing
no certain
form
so how to juggle a dessert
poem with a main course
one or even trying
to stuff in a
seconda
i cant
i'm no critic but merely
a hiccup in what is
a smorgasbord
of words and
wonderment
the winner is
BURP!!!!!!!
I still see her ghost.
She's at the woodstove cooking and baking.
Perfumes still roam the air.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
COOKING WITH JIM
actually, with him in spirit, in the kitchen
of his quaint brownstone on West 12th Street
in Manhattan, decades after his death.
And quite at home with him, I chop and slice;
bake, twice-baked potatoes — their skins crisping
to perfection; roast, the prime tenderloin of beef
he’d earlier instructed me to hand-rub with
coarsely ground black pepper and kosher salt.
(I used sea salt and that was ok with him.)
Right now, he’s reminding me to stir my roux,
then I should add the crisp bacon bits, made earlier,
to the finely chopped spinach I just finished sautéing.
He says I should wait till the last minute
to toss the mélange of local field greens with
the lemongrette he had me make in lieu of
vinaigrette, because, it seems that vinegar
often spoils the taste of wine. As for the wines
with dinner: for the salad, I’m chilling
a 2011 Seyval Blanc from New York State;
with the beef dish, a 10-year-old California
Zinfandel; this followed by a 2010 Pinot Noir
from Oregon, paired with artisanal cheeses
from Vermont and Connecticut, plus
crisp sourdough rolls and flatbread;
and, in the frig, chilling, a late-harvest, Long Island
Riesling to complement the secret confection hidden
away on a silver tray till dessert-time.
According to Jim, red wine should be served at
room temperature, and since older reds have a layer
of sediment in the bottle, he said the Zin will need
to be decanted, and that, right before serving;
he wants the Pinot to breathe 15 minutes, or so,
in the glass before being drunk.
(The aeration of younger reds will rid those wines of
their chalky tasting tannins.) All this for my guests
who’ll soon be sitting round my dining table akin to
Jim’s 60 inch round green marble slab of a tabletop,
where, before the first bite of the Jim-inspired,
5-star meal, I’ll raise my glass to the big bald guy —
James Beard, “The Father of American Cuisine.”