Ciao Bella Chocolate Sorbet by Elaine Equi

A couple of weeks ago, Grace Lin and I had breakfast at Henrietta’s Table in Harvard Square. After we ate, we headed over to Curious George & Friends. After browsing through the new picture books on display at the front of the store, I checked out the poetry section—where I found a wonderful anthology, Poem in Your Pocket. The book includes an introduction by U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan. How had I missed the publication of the book earlier this year?????

From the book’s description at the website of The Academy of American Poets: Published in conjunction with the Academy of American Poets, Poem in Your Pocket enables you to select a poem you love, neatly tear it out from the book, and then carry it with you all day to read, be inspired by, and share with coworkers, family, and friends. This innovative format features 200 poems from Shakespeare to Sexton, cleverly organized by theme.

In the introduction, Ryan talks about having money in your pocket, looking at all the things you could buy with it, eventually purchasing something, and feeling a sense of dissatisfaction—of wanting to trade more money for more goods—because “the new goes off the new…”

Quoting from Ryan’s introduction: A poem in your pocket is different. The whole way it works is different. In a way, you can’t spend a poem even if you want to. As opposed to money—which seems intent upon getting out of your pocket as though it were a feral animal—a poem settles in. When I say “pocket” here, I mean “mind.” A poem settles into your mind.

I haven’t read all of the poems in Poem in Your Pocket yet. Today, I’m sharing a poem by Elaine Equi that I found in the book--a poem that settled into MY mind...maybe because I LOVE chocolate so much.


Ciao Bella Chocolate Sorbet

has a dense
chewy

water to chocolate
ratio

as if a whole
devil’s food cake

were dissolved
in each scoop.

Delivers Elvis-like
indulgence

for only 120 calories.

You can read the rest of the poem here. You’ll have to scroll down—it’s the third poem on the page.

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At Wild Rose Reader, I have A Poem for Banned Books Week. It’s a revised version of Book Talk 2007, a poem I wrote more than two years ago.

At Political Verses, I have Dirty Dancing with the Stars: A Poem about Tom DeLay.

Susan Taylor Brown is doing the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.