Ode to the Cereal Starch
Cereri Sacrum: A Dedication to Tuesday's Breadmaking
Flour Power
And Cereal Secrets
Sacred to Ceres:
Mysteries of the Grain
in a kernel of corn
[powder powder].
Oh this Chaos of flour powder and
all this mess to clean up! milled mash...
The Ear is
the grain-bearing tip
of the stem
of a Cereal Plant;
the Romans called the
Goddess of Corn [wheat]: CERES
Secrets of starting, something fermented, exhaling
a yeasty, beer-like odor//:
Sullen, en-wombed,
the Ear of Wheat has been steeped in these musty fluids
something fungal;
the edge of rye mold (LSD)
[what properties lie hidden underneath this husk?]
KNEAD DOUGH/ need $$$?
Ceres is grain and grain is
Coin. All the gain is in the grain
whose fabled Cornucopia was
Regeneracy with every harvest-time sickle
swipe.
Sullen, en-wombed, en-swirling
a Cerealbox Starchfest
of global feeding possibilities!
We may croon over the
Purple Mountains Majesty
but it is the
Amber Waves of Grain
really basing this Pyramid.
Why do I do this to myself? On my day off?
Such is the Power of Flour,
like an urge in the pit of the throat
spurred on from the gut.
An Urge:
the Ancients say that when Ceres is angered
from lack of offerings
Her action falls upon you as
Anorexia/
or Gluttony. She is feast and famine and
She is that by which
we are driven wild with appetite or inappetite;
She will always be with us (proofed)
as Gluten,
roped-up in stretchy web-work morphed
into ONE
nestled deep in the
knotty gnarled roots of
the stomach: the Insatiable Grain-Pig,
animal sacrifice to the corn mother
starching-out on modified grasses.
DEA\\: give us our daily bread oh
Goddess,
Your Body is the Sacrament,
Proven by the Austerity of the Oven,
BAKED anew as
a miracle of mortality.
You call this a sacrament,
I call it a celebration. Here is
Jubilation of the Harvest
and cream of its
crop slopped into one sticky Glutinous Ball
BAKED ANEW// mortally miraculous, so
take This
for It is
my Body:
CERERI SACRUM: Sacred to Ceres! io!
Some wine to go with it?
About the Creator
Rob Angeli
sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt
There are tears of things, and mortal objects touch the mind.
-Virgil Aeneid I.462
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- Runner-Up Place in Ode to Ordinary Challenge
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Comments (28)
Rob I loved this and now you've not only got me craving fresh bread with butter but also the idea of making a fresh batch!!
Lol! Wow! I really like the alliteration (? I think? some of the words start with the same letter??) in this! Like reading a poetic History book mixed with a journal⦠Loved this.
I feel like I received a history lesson along with your insightful poem! π Great work and uniquely presented. Congrats R on a terrific and well deserved top story. π
Congrats on Top Story!
inspired!
A poetic homage to Flour Power and Cereal Secrets, celebrating the mystique of grains and the goddess Ceres through a tapestry of symbolism and sensory experiences.
Awesome! Keep it up! You can check out my work too!
Brilliant!!! Congratulations on Top Story!!!
A very fitting ode and mouth watering photos. Now I have the urge to get a sourdough starter going.
Lovely, lovely ode. Wish they would leave the flour as wheat, yet bad things taste so good. Congrats TS.
This comment has been deleted
Congratulations for top story π
Excellent and Congratulations on your Top Storyπππππππππ
Well, damn, you made me hungry! ππΊ
Yay. Congrats on the TS.
Fabulous!! I envy your ability with poetry β€οΈ And I love the play on words for Flour Power, truly there is nothing like baking to help relieve some stress for me π
This is really brilliant! I love the mythical references, and the photos really added to it! I am also very envious, I am a horrible baker and nothing I try to bake ever manifests in anything edible!
Excellent words and some great images in here
This is marvelous. I love the repetition and getting a glimpse of your Tuesday ritual. What a lovely tradition. The flow and rhythm of this poem are as delicious as the bread you bake! (Trusting my eyes on this one) Well done π
Many wonderful things here. I read it a few times to capture it all. So creative! I love it.
So cool! I really enjoyed this!
Oh wow! What a wonderful ode to Ceres! I learnt so many things from your poem!
"Sullen, en-wombed, the Ear of Wheat has been steeped in these musty fluids something fungal; the edge of rye mold (LSD) [what properties lie hidden underneath this husk?]" LOL, I absolutely love how your humor manifests, Rob! And all the puns sprinkled throughout as well; love all the "prove" ones, lol. Throughly enjoyed this one. I read it last night, but wanted more time to comment. "Such is the Power of Flour, like an urge in the pit of the throat spurred on from the gut. An Urge: the Ancients say that when Ceres is angered from lack of offerings Her action falls upon you as Anorexia/ or Gluttony." This feels like the heart of the poem, and yes of course I see that you were inspired by your Tuesday activity, but also, I'm seeing the urge to bake here, with all of your photographs of past success; do you need to bake today? No. Will you? Yes. Lol. I love it, and I especially love how you tie in the Goddess of Ceres to the activity, and make it almost religious experience. For fear of famine or in the pursuit of gluttony? Maybe a mix of both. So much more to unravel here, but I see it all, and commend you on a wonderfully complex, unique, and rich ode to a "mundane" task such as bread baking, which is of course more laborious than some realize. It was a joy to read, my friend. ππ»ππ»ππ»
Oh darn. Now I want my grandma's raisin bread. Great job on kneading the mythology and the grain into this wonderful bun..err ode, wonderful ode.
All of the references to gods and goddesses really elevate this ode!! It's educational but also entertaining. Bravo!!