“Did it taste the same?” (Poem, “52 Makeup” Week 8)

“Did it taste the same?” (Poem, “52 Makeup” Week 8) March 1, 2017

Zelda’s Inferno is an informal poetry workshop group founded by my friend Robin Gunkel many years ago. When meet (which these days is a random occurrence) we do a writing exercise, the idea of which is not necessarily to create a finished poem but to put words on the page. (I came up with our motto: “If you have words on the page, you win.”) Sometimes those words develop into a full poem, sometimes the have the seed of one, and sometimes they just add to the compost pile that will fertilize other creative work.

At this Sunday’s meeting, the exercise was to write a poem that made some reference to synesthesia. The first three lines here were the conversation across the table as we sat down to write.


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Did it taste the same?

that’s the LSD workshop
I’ve done this exercise before
Did it taste the same?

Is this a word I see before me
Stabbing sharp
Sounding like a bright light

The scent of the alarm
The sound of a hot pepper
The taste of a pencil-point breaking

Some people see God
Some hear voices of the divine
Why does no one taste the Mystery?

(Was the doctrine of transubstantiation a failed attempt at this?)

Did it taste the same?
I’ve done this exercise before


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