Poetic Inspiration: Hard Boiled Eggs

Earlier today, I posted an excerpt from an interview with Haruki Murakami in The Paris Review, where he discusses the influence of hardboiled detective fiction on his work. I thought it would be funny if the subsequent post were a poem about hard boiled eggs (if one existed).

When I Googled “hard boiled egg” poem, lo and behold, I hit the hard boiled egg jackpot. It seems that beaucoup poets have written odes to hard boiled eggs!

In thinking this over, I came to the conclusion that these poets decided they “had” to write about something  — and focused on one of the first things that greeted them in the a.m.: BREAKFAST. Thus, all the paeans to eggs cooked in boiling water.

So I declare January 11th HARD BOILED EGG poetry day at the Silver Birch Press blog and will run some of these lyrical breakfast treats throughout the day.

THE HARD BOILED EGG

by Ruth M. (member of a poetry group at this link)

As I peel my egg,

shell adheres

to the clear membrane

in chunks, like ice floes

on the surface of water.

 

Before I bite

the end, cool and round,

I know the felt-like yolk

will mix with the metallic white,

 

an aggregate flowing with

grains of pepper and salt

on the riverbed of my tongue.

 

Every day is a completeness

like this. Conversations

like embryos fresh

and awake for surprise.

 

Nakedness under a shell.

Nourishment begun

at my mother’s white table cloth

that spreads to the snow

 

fields around this farm peppered

with thistle crowns and bare

branches emerging from

under the mask of white

that curves around the world.

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Illustration: Nguyet Vuong, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED