Monday Morning Musing for 11.23.2020

November 23, 2020

Seattle, WA

I'm back in Seattle for the holidays, winter break, pandemic shut down. My heart is full of gratitude and so is this poem by Anne Whitehouse.

BLESSING V

To my mind

the greatest treasures

the Europeans found

in the New World

were not gold, silver,

copper, or precious stones,

wonderful as they are,

but the native foods

they married to their own cuisines.

Riches of my beloved

Hemisphere, I celebrate you;

you are native to me, too.

I have grown and thrived on you.

You have satisfied my hunger,

given me energy and health,

awakened in me

longings for your melded flavors.

I crave, and I eat,

and you satiate me.

At the basis of the diet,

the "three sisters" --

corn, beans, squash --

dried or ground into meal,

roasted or boiled,

made into soups or stews:

the seeds, kernels, and beans

spill out of the cornupcopia,

millions and millions adding up.

(A portion of this BLESSING V, from the volume Blessings and Curses)