writing advice

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Every Tuesday we will be sharing a poem from one of our wonderful Pen to Print and Write On! contributors. We hope you enjoy!**Rainbow Plates by Eithne CullenI read that we should eat a colourful plate of food; the rainbow of colours boosts our mood and our immune systems. No wonder my generation saw so many sickly children. Food was seasonal, mainly beige. Meals were uninspiring, uninspired.I recently attended a very nice event, where lunch was served. It was a buffet lunch and the evolution/revolution in the world of food was highlighted for me.The buffet was mainly made up of little kebabs: salmon, chicken, beef or roasted veg, on biodegradable wooden mini-skewers. There were wraps, filled to bursting with lovely salads and vegetables, green and red. A luscious spread.I thought back to what this would have been like a few years ago and remembered the spreads of white egg rolls alongside an array of fried delights: chicken gougons (the first time I heard the word as an adult I thought it was made up!), fishy bites, stuffed and breaded mushrooms. The buffet planners relished the world where fat and salty meant tasty, too.Roll back another couple of decades, when the height of sophistication was a paper plate with a folded serviette on it, on a pile of similar plates. The food – cooked meats and hard boiled eggs, little pork pies and limp salad – so hard to eat with the plastic knife and fork! It was a situation like this that forms the family story of the pink serviette being mistaken for a slice of tasteless ham.Then one more step back when sandwiches were always the only fare. In one house I knew well there was always a choice: ham with mustard or ham without mustard. No one ever complained!Exciting foods arriving on the scene, supermarkets stocking year-round produce, new strains, freezers and refrigeration, new palates – all of these have contributed to the revolution we’ve experienced.I came across a poem very recently by Thomas Lux: Refrigerator 1957. It evokes the pre-revolutionary dullness of our diet, and I love the lines:childhood of dull dinners — bald meat,pocked peas and, see above,boiled potatoes.T ... See MoreSee Less

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Pen to Print

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Pen to Print

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We thought you might like this poem on the underground:25th April 1974 by Sophia de Mello Breyner translated by Ruth Fainlight ... See MoreSee Less

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