[Photo taken above and below is property of E Stelling, author of this website]
The poetry of Elizabeth Stelling caught my attention immediately.
She is a poet, but not the poetry that I’m familiar with. Elizabeth makes food taste better… she cooks with her spoken words. Her voice, full of the inflections that say “The South” churn like butter from sweet cream to my ears. I needed to hear more.
I hoped that Wild River Review would be a good forum for her unique format. It is the written word… and the spoken one too.
“I experiment with Flavors”… Elizabeth Stelling, hails from Texas where she grew up, but after traveling and now in New Jersey works on the road as a personal chef, and restaurant consultant. Also currently teaching culinary classes, she still runs her small catering and staffing business, and shares her love of cooking with local, organic, healthy, and natural ingredients. Elizabeth is a member of Slow Food and the American Wine Society, Princeton, New Jersey. She has published written works of poetry and media pieces, as well as hosts Cultural Art Expression- Open Mic
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Thank you Elizabeth for sending us into an aural state of bliss!
Morning fires warmed our small feet
Only to be numbed by the cold that
Lurked in the wooden floors
In the feelings meeting us in our living room…
Hunger pulled us… one-two-three…
Into the kitchen
Watching our mother- steam rising- boiling water
Her shaking hands
Preparing poverties feast
Children’s piercing eyes… one-two-three
Hands pulling, faint cries of wanting;
A little taste, a little recognition…
Dizziness brought on by stirring
Anger- hitting the spoon on the pan
Sometime us…
Tears brought on by onions
A father walking out the door…
Life's dish of hard lessons
A burning after taste of cruelty…
Left us… one- two- three- four
With a craving for corn bread and beans…
I wrote this poem when I was around fifteen, and have revised it three or four times, but I still fall back on my original version.
