Our Spontaneous Cheese Poetry on Date Night

“Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”

― G.K. Chesterton, Alarms and Discursions

I watched the moon shine brightly this evening through the window of our car. It was day one of two days of travel and the shortest day of the year. ( I wrote this in December 2023). That meant we were traveling mostly at night. The main thing was that we arrived at our first destination and managed to go to sleep, all five of us.

Kids tucked up in bed, I seek to take my mind off today’s adventures—that is, kids being sick and me catching it fully and unapologetically on the way. Imagine my sneezing, runny nose, and that feeling of wanting to sleep all day long while on a road trip with our three kids.

That is how I thought of writing a short piece about our cheese poetry talk on our date night a few weeks ago.

Note: Date night is not a predetermined action in our daily lives. There isn’t a date night on Friday or something of the sort. It usually catches us by surprise. We are spontaneous and also take advantage of situations if we can.

So, we were on a magical date in our living room.

We were in the middle of an investigation into the historical silence of poets on cheese.

Curiously enough, it seems poets have been too busy writing about love and nature to pay homage to the diversity of cheeses that arrive on our tables.

In our quest to fill this poetic void, hubby and I embarked on a whimsical exploration of our cheeseboard. As I sipped my red wine and savored the creamy brie, I wondered why no poet has waxed eloquent about its luscious texture and delicate flavor. They obviously missed the chance to compose their odes to the tangy taste of goat cheese on the palate. My husband noticed that there are, literally, no poetical stanzas on aged cheddar.

Reminiscing over our earlier date in Gouda, before we had kids, we mused about cheese poetry. So just try to imagine us two, my husband and I, poets of the fromage, or cheese in French. We found inspiration in the nutty nuances of an aged Gouda and the playful notes of blue Danish cheese. They were cut into small cubes on our platter, and they became a muse. Sorry, I wasn’t taking pictures, except trying to be present and really capturing the experience with all my senses.

We were laughing in hushed sounds because the kids were sleeping. But we were enjoying our date night a lot.

How delightful to realize that even such seemingly day-to-day ideas can be a source of inspiration, turning a simple cheese and wine date into a fun night without too much effort.

Have you ever explored cheese poetry?

Please let me know in the comments if you find any poems on cheese.

And remember 👇

“You may fascinate a woman by giving her a piece of cheese.” The spell comes from Kathryn Paulsen’s 1971 book, The Complete Book of Magic and Witchcraft — Quoted on the below website (not affiliated link)

Note: There is an open Facebook group called Poems about Cheese, with contemporary musings by a cheese lover, not the classical poetry we were talking about on date night. They are really funny though. They also have a blog with the same name https://poemsaboutcheese.com/

Disclaimer: We were not making a scientific exploration of the subject, and we didn’t delve into exact findings. We merely drew our conclusions over our cheese platter and our earthy fig and nutty wine.

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***I originally published this story on Medium.***

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