“A recipe for a poem”

Poetry Triple Launch with Jessi MacEachern, William Vallières, and Sarah Burgoyne

April 1 2023

presented with On a Table, Over Time





In addition to “The First Ever Recipe for a Poem,” the authors also wrote recipes for each other’s poetry!

Recipe for a poem by Jessi MacEachern

by Sarah Burgoyne

Red sand still clinging to a cliff (one vial).
The weather left by water moving over grass (three skies).
Childhood like dreams, like swerve, like a wand
disappearing things, a fall from a roof
into lilacs (one fall). A nape, that is a whole nape.
A blind glass, a pink shadow speaking
to her father (three words). A small cough
has entered the poem (add it). An exclamation mark sparks
a brief scene (swirl it in). Knowing circles the space
like x-rated dawn. (Bake for ten years) It is original.
It is inevitable.

Recipe for a poem by Will Vallières

by Jessi MacEachern

Ingredients:

the yellowing pages of a philosophy text
the intoxicating smile of a brawny mountaineer
the frisson of the first real spring day

Steps:

1. Place pages in mouth of mountaineer.
   
2. Wave pages in direction of spring.
   
3. Wait.
   
4. Listen to the new rhythms.
   

Recipe for a poem by Sarah Burgoyne

by Jessi MacEachern

To write a poem à la Sarah Burgoyne, gather the following:

A peacock feather that has been 1) soaked in jasmine perfume, then 2) dried in a sunbeam, and 3) hung in a mysterious cave

A small child with wonder in their eyes

One heaping pile of clothing from your favourite vintage clothing store: items in pile may vary, but must include one of each: sequinned top, jewel toned bottom, costume jewellery (preferably a tiara)

1. Place the feather in the hair of the child.
   
2. Direct the child to transform the clothing pile into a fort.
   
3. Record the secret name of every clothing item the feather makes contact with.
   
4. Read it to the child inside the completed fort (preferably while wearing the tiara).
   

Alongside On a Table, Over Time, three poets performed at the plumb to celebrate the launch of three new chapbooks: Jessi MacEachern’s When A Folk, When a Sprawl (above/ground press), William Vallières’ Poor Rutebeuf (above/ground press), and Sarah Burgoyne’s Air’s Error (Anstruther Press). In conversation with the exhibition, the authors also presented “The First Ever Recipe for a Poem,” as well as the first ever result of such a recipe, which was then read aloud to the audience:

The First Ever Recipe for a Poem

by Sarah Burgoyne, Jessi MacEachern and William Vallières


INGREDIENTS

A nature image
Three rhyming words
A rhetorical question
The weirdest thing you can compare the moon to
An alliterative sentence

Collect the following ingredients from the world or from voices of people in the world or in a gallery. Mix them into a poem (preferably in a five minute time span). Pass along the poem to another poet (or two) for remixing. Read the poem to the gallery.

The Poem

(based on above recipe)


COLLECTED INGREDIENTS

Moss on a rock
Book, look, nook
"How great is this?"
Cricket
Fanny found forty foxes


THE POEM (read aloud to a gallery)

Like moss on a rock, Fanny
with a look, with memory
with a potato in a nook.

The moon is a cricket, you said
it sings, lonesome, outside
the party. The moon rubs
its legs together, Fanny said.
How great is this?

Forty foxes in your book
look. In forty foxholes
they write a recipe for a poem.
The cricket moon sings,
How great is this.