Monday, April 11, 2011

internet poetry foraging: found 1 mushroom

Posted by Melissa

Amy, holding her first mushroom specimen.
Amy and I were sharing dinner and wine together after our PSMS Mushroom ID class this past Thursday night, and as usual, we got to chatting.  Our conversations roamed through life and death, the fallible nature of humanity, and of course, mushrooms.  The night was edging on as the hours grew larger in number, and when I realized it was 11pm, I sadly had to call it a night and get to my studying for Algebra and Chemistry.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I should have left earlier." Amy obliged.

"Whatever.  I love hanging out and talking about all this stuff.  Anyway, I have been getting up super early and doing my work while everyone else is in bed.  So, no worries."  I volleyed back.

"You know," Amy shared, "Sylvia Plath use to get up early and write her poetry when she had kids."

"Yeah," I laughed, "but didn't she drown herself in a lake? Looks like it didn't work out too well."

"No, head in the oven. Virginia Woolf went in the lake, pockets full of stones." Amy corrected me.

I kept thinking of those words "head in the oven."  So blunt, so evocative.   I kept seeing my own head lying in my filthy oven, pink kitchen walls cheerily in the background.  In my vision, I must have been there for quite some time because I looked confused as to why nothing was happening.  Finally, I raised my head and shaking it while rolling my eyes with a huff.  The black chunks of burnt food fell from my dirty cheeks that were marked in lines from the oven rack.

Kneeling awkwardly, still over the oven door, it dawns on me...I have an electric oven.

***

As I sat down to write my post mushroom class blog post, I kept thinking of that ironic scene in my imagination and feeling strangely connected to Sylvia Plath.  I studied poetry in college, but I didn't remember any of her writing.  So, I got sidetracked searching for her works on line.
Serendipitously, I came across this poem.



Volunteer Park mushroom find on 4.8.11.

I'd love to dissect this poem, key it out so to speak, to use the terms of mushroom identifying.

Anyone have any thoughts as to what she is alluding to?

Anyone know of any other great mushroom poetry?

Do you think I should use this as one of my poems I memorize?

Leave me a comment below.  I would really love to hear what you think.

-Melissa

7 comments:

sophanne said...

I'm going to say it's about childbirth at the beginning- I think there is some allusion to feeling consumed. We shall by morning inherit the earth... Seems like she's waiting for the nudgers and shovers to wake up and force her to attend to the day.

Melissa said...

don't I know it...there is no "not attending" the day around here. Some sources I found think that it is about women's rights/issues. SO you may be onto something. I should put the date on the poem, for context.

Ellen Moseman said...

Jason told me about this and now I've found it. Now to lurk...

Ellen

Melissa Baumgart said...

Glad you found us Ellen! I've been keeping up with your blog updates. Damn the coast of Taiwan looks AWESOME.

Anonymous said...

Your first mushrooms specimens from Volunteer Park look like a large fruiting of inky caps! One of the species that closely resembles Coprinus micaceus. Very cool.
- Danny

Melissa Baumgart said...

Danny, thank you so very much for your input. And definitely, please correct us where make errors on any of the info as we are just beginning to learn about the vast world of fungi.
Thanks for taking the time to look at our blog, and comment!
See you around PSMS happenings...

Melissa Baumgart said...

@Danny - I did a spore print of the "inky cap" mushroom and it was all black. Then, the entire thing turned to mush. I will post the print...though it's not the best picture. I tried doign it on saran wrap, you know, because I didn't have a glass plate hanging around. :-)

-Amy