The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink
Poets have extolled culinary indulgence since at least Anacreon and Sappho, but poet and editor Young (Ardency, 2011) includes in this anthology poems that interpret food and drink in a myriad of imaginative ways. From Pablo Neruda’s condimental odes (“Ode to Salt” and “Ode to an Onion”) to Langston Hughes’ “I, Too, Sing America,” sustenance and libations play shifting and diverse roles throughout. Though gastronomic wordplay seems too easy to describe the smorgasbord of stylistic samplings in this melodious cornucopia, perhaps the “horn of plenty” is an appropriate figure for the anthology, as Young brings to the table a refreshingly flavorful selection of poets. It’s fascinating to read Natasha Trethewey (“Invocation, 1926”) and Charles Simic (“Watermelons”), Gary Soto (“The Plum’s Heart”), Martín Espada (“Coca-Cola and Coco Frío”), and works by poets of the past and to see how the poems diverge and converge. This is perhaps the great strength of any thematic anthology, work presented not in arbitrary or alphabetical order, but grouped by common subjects, such as Young’s food-for-thought categories, “Meat & Potatoes,” “Forbidden Fruit,” and “Giving Thanks.” --Diego Báez