my mother’s recipes
what’s missing
and what’s gone
Published by
Seanan Forbes
Since 1996, Seanan Forbes has lived as an expat. She lives in a perpetual state of hiraeth, being heartsick for New York when in London and for London when in New York. She is working on a practice-based PhD, exploring the expat and migrant experience through haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun, and haiga. Her work has appeared in chapbooks and anthologies, including String to Bow (Leaf Press, 2005), A New Resonance: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, Volume 8 (Red Moon Press, 2013), and fear of dancing: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2013 (Red Moon Press, 2014). Her poems have also appeared in numerous journals, including The Heron's Nest, Frogpond, Acorn, Atlas Poetica, Contemporary Haibun Online, A Hundred Gourds, Haibun Today, Mid-American Poetry Review, Modern Haiku, Notes from the Gean, Shamrock, Sketchbook, Skylark Magazine, The New Review, The Prose-Poem Project, and Theodate.She recently joined the editorial team of Under the Basho. View all posts by Seanan Forbes
This resonates with me as my mother was famous city-wide for two recipes that she supplied to the restaurant family business, and for other recipes.
My mother is now 92, and with gangrene that is spreading, so your haiku poem is so much more poignant for me.
with much gratitude,
Alan
I am sorry that your mother is sick with gangrene; when my brother was diagnosed with ALS, I learned to help him live while everyone who loved him knew he was dying. The recipe for how to live while dying takes great love. Time has brought gratitude for the many memories. Thank you for sharing.
Ah yes, I make my mother laugh, we share a wicked sense of humor. She's fine mentally being a WWII survivor so very pragmatic and practical, getting proportions right in life. :-)
with gratitude and shared feeling,
Alan
Simply and eloquently expressed. Thank you. My mother liked to cook and though she tried to teach me, I didn't want to go there until much later, when I understood the importance of good nutrition and appetizing meals. I still make her recipes and have some of her cookbooks and they mean the world to me. Wonderful poem. Thanks again!
Nice poem, that give me some inspirations for Mothers Day :)
Oh, this is beautiful, Seanan! The finality of 'what's gone' resounds long after reading…
marion