about two birds

Once upon a time, I ventured into a vintage shop looking for a tea cup. I found one with two birds on the inside. I thought it was romantic (I still do). I bought the cup and brought it home with me. It sat on the edge of the non-working fireplace in my bedroom for a while, waiting to be gifted away. It was my intention to give it to someone - but it just sat there. And while it sat there, I finished editing, proofing and launching my first poetry collection. It is called Keeping Bees and it came out in March 2014.

Publishing the collection hit me. Really hard. It shook me, and it shocked me - so much so that two days after the launch of 'Keeping Bees', I broke down and cried (with my whole body). In fact, 'with my whole body' is how I am with pretty much everything. With my whole body I came to Dublin (a place I knew little to nothing about); with my whole body, I came to write (and I have done just that; with my whole body, I have written and written and, I have stayed.

There is this thing I've read about poets...'scratch a poet,find a gourmand'. A few years ago, I visited Madrid for the first time (and here is where you can read all about the second time). It was for a work trip and when I came back all I could talk about was the food I had eaten, and one particular lunch I had had while there - asparagus and greens on toasted bread, followed by mint chamomile tea with watermelon. My co-workers found it amusing (I went into excruciating detail about what it felt like to eat that meal) and while they already knew this about me, it took that meal, on that trip to tip me off, just how much 'with my whole body' I am about food. And food, in all its forms is everywhere in the poems in Keeping Bees. The collection, about love and bodies (and bodies in and out of love) is full of fruit and meat and vegetables and it took publishing the collection - seeing the whole of it - to realize just how significant food, from tomatoes to peaches, and chickens to ice cream is for me

Seeing the whole of it did something else - it gave me an idea. It gave me several in fact. The biggest one is this: I want to turn Keeping Bees into a cookbook. I haven't the first clue how to go about making this happen - but I am open to trying, and seeing where it takes me. As an initial step, I've decided to set up this blog as a space where I can talk about writing, cooking, and eating.

Thanks for stopping by! Anyone interested in discussing a possible culinary-literary collaboration can email me at twobirdsinateacup@gmail.com.

d.

PS - One of those birds is a rebel.
PPS - If you are interested in reading my work (poems and other writing), you can do that here.