RECIPE FOR POETRY (AND Lemon Waffles)

serves 4

4 eggs, separated

3 tablespoons honey

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons grated lemon zest

1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 cup flour

In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks with the honey.  Blend in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and butter, beating well.  Blend in the milk and flour alternately.  Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into batter.  Bake in prepared waffle iron until golden brown.

This batter can also be used to make lovely, light pancakes.                

One of the poems from GIRL COMING IN FOR A LANDING—A Novel in Poems (Knopf), which is based on my journals as a teen, is about my favorite breakfast food, waffles…and writing:

WAITING FOR WAFFLES

The T.V. talks in the other room,

the ironing board stands, hands on hips,

in the middle of Great Aunt Ida's kitchen

and I sit on the burgundy booth in my p.j.s as

Great Aunt Ida makes waffles.

I love pouring batter onto the waffle iron.

It’s like writing poems--

from puddles to patterns.

If I stare at the black light

willing it to warm to red,

it takes forever.

Just like writing.  Sometimes I have to

not write

in order to write.

So I slide around

the vinyl booth seat

to look out her second story window

at the birds.

I am waiting

for waffles.

Words about writing for children:

Poetry is a place I set up where others can join me. I clear the brush, rake the leaves, drag in an old log to sit on, plant some violets. Readers may not see the same things I see there, or think the same things I was thinking when I wrote the poem, but they can sit on the log and I will be quiet and let them watch me plant the violets.~ April Halprin Wayland