OP: Spud Songs

Helicon Nine Editions, Kansas City, MO, 1999. Paperback. Very Good.

There are potato lovers, and then there are people who love potatoes so much they write poetry about them. And there are, perhaps surprisingly, a good number of the latter. Enough—80, or so—for two Kansas City-based poets to compile a book of potato-themed verses.

Lequita Vance-Watkins’ piece analogizes agriculture with music: “Potato, you thunder along/ your ground bass/ underground in three-quarter time.”

Robert Phillips remembers his late grandfather through his love of mashed potatoes, “There never was a dinner, when we went over,/ without mashed potatoes—a smooth white mountain/ heaped in a blue china bowl. He always had thirds,/ topped with gravy, which he called ‘The Essence.’”

And Michelle Boisseau writes from the perspective of the tuber, “I don’t want trouble, but the rutabagas/ and the turnips, especially the turnips,/ are muttering Ingrate, Upstart, and throwing/ me looks. Sheez, Louise. I’m hardly escarole.”

Our copy is Very Good with a few penned notes in the margins and on the half title. Illustrated with black and white photos and color inserts of potato-oriented artworks, as well. Delightful.