Laura Purdie Salas

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Poetry Friday: August (by Maurice Sendak)

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When Maurice Sendak died, I saw several references in blog posts to this charming verse book, Chicken Soup with Rice (HarperCollins, 1962).

In honor of this horrible heat we’re having lately, here’s “August.”

August

In August
it will be so hot
I will become
a cooking pot
cooking soup of course.
Why not?
Cooking once
cooking twice
cooking chicken soup
with rice.
–Maurice Sendak,? from Chicken Soup with Rice

Honestly, the thought of hot soup on a hot August day makes me feel a little queasy! I’d much prefer hot soup in January, “while slipping /?on the sliding ice” or in March, when “the wind /?blows down the door / and spills my soup / upon the floor.” But it’s August, so there ya go.

Rena at On the Way to Somewhere has the Poetry Friday Roundup today! Head on over and enjoy!

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Comments

  1. I was at a restaurant earlier this week known for its soups… only when I asked the server announced, “no soup in the summer.” Which is unfortunate, if you ask me! I can crank up the A/C and still enjoy a bowl of soup anytime of the year. 🙂 Thanks for sharing, Laura. xo

  2. I was at a restaurant earlier this week known for its soups… only when I asked the server announced, “no soup in the summer.” Which is unfortunate, if you ask me! I can crank up the A/C and still enjoy a bowl of soup anytime of the year. 🙂 Thanks for sharing, Laura. xo

  3. So true–I had tomato-basil in the nice a/c last week! I posted as I was packing the cooler for our drum corps trip, so soup sounded not so great in that context:)

  4. So true–I had tomato-basil in the nice a/c last week! I posted as I was packing the cooler for our drum corps trip, so soup sounded not so great in that context:)

  5. Always loved Sendak’s Chicken Soup with Rice! I’m not a summer soup person, unless I’m sick…I trade soup for ice cream in the summer.

  6. Always loved Sendak’s Chicken Soup with Rice! I’m not a summer soup person, unless I’m sick…I trade soup for ice cream in the summer.

  9. We were celebrating a friend’s birthday last week, and the soup was announced to be some kind of unusual version of gazpacho. Two friends ordered the soup, but what they got was something pale green and quite sweet. Turns out the gazpacho ran out and the soup of the day was some kind of melon concoction. I tried it and found it to be more of a cooling drink than a soup, so I put some of the ice cubes from my water into it and sipped it as if the small bowl were a teacup. I tried to convince the waiter to bring me a shot of vodka to turn it into a cooling summer cocktail, but he didn’t think that was as funny as I did.

    That’s my summer soup story. ‘Cause there’s not going to be a pot of it on MY stove until we move on out of this HADES time of year!!

  10. We were celebrating a friend’s birthday last week, and the soup was announced to be some kind of unusual version of gazpacho. Two friends ordered the soup, but what they got was something pale green and quite sweet. Turns out the gazpacho ran out and the soup of the day was some kind of melon concoction. I tried it and found it to be more of a cooling drink than a soup, so I put some of the ice cubes from my water into it and sipped it as if the small bowl were a teacup. I tried to convince the waiter to bring me a shot of vodka to turn it into a cooling summer cocktail, but he didn’t think that was as funny as I did.

    That’s my summer soup story. ‘Cause there’s not going to be a pot of it on MY stove until we move on out of this HADES time of year!!

  11. I also like soup and stew in the summer. But this year has been especially hot so one night I stayed up late so that it would be cool enough to bake cupcakes. My poor flowers are boiling away in this heat.

  12. I also like soup and stew in the summer. But this year has been especially hot so one night I stayed up late so that it would be cool enough to bake cupcakes. My poor flowers are boiling away in this heat.

  13. When my kids were small, we used to read this book while we did have ‘chicken soup with rice’! I’d forgotten until you shared the poem. I still have the book-all of his are such a pleasure. But, it’s hot, hot here too. I hope it doesn’t crank up much more for school beginning. Thanks, Laura.

    • Me too. Fun, Linda. We need to do more book/food connecting. Tomorrow night, we’re watching the original Jaws movie with our younger daughter and making some kind of special shark/ocean-themed dinner. Shark-shaped pizza and I don’t know what else. I wish we had done more stuff like that for books when our kids were younger and we all ready together…What great memories you made.

  14. When my kids were small, we used to read this book while we did have ‘chicken soup with rice’! I’d forgotten until you shared the poem. I still have the book-all of his are such a pleasure. But, it’s hot, hot here too. I hope it doesn’t crank up much more for school beginning. Thanks, Laura.

    • Me too. Fun, Linda. We need to do more book/food connecting. Tomorrow night, we’re watching the original Jaws movie with our younger daughter and making some kind of special shark/ocean-themed dinner. Shark-shaped pizza and I don’t know what else. I wish we had done more stuff like that for books when our kids were younger and we all ready together…What great memories you made.

  15. When my kiddos were young, they loved listening to Carole King singing Chicken Soup with Rice…we checked the cassette with book out of the library many many times. Reading your post got me singing once, singing twice, singing chicken soup with rice (singing is definitely easier than cooking in this heat.)
    Buffy

    • I grew up with my big sisters’ Tapestry album! I’ve never heard her sing this, though. And had never heard of this little book until Sendak died. Loved hearing your memories, Buffy!

  16. When my kiddos were young, they loved listening to Carole King singing Chicken Soup with Rice…we checked the cassette with book out of the library many many times. Reading your post got me singing once, singing twice, singing chicken soup with rice (singing is definitely easier than cooking in this heat.)
    Buffy

    • I grew up with my big sisters’ Tapestry album! I’ve never heard her sing this, though. And had never heard of this little book until Sendak died. Loved hearing your memories, Buffy!

  17. All my summer holidays as a child were spent in Scotland and lunch was nearly always soup – it was often cold enough to warrant the comfort of hot soup. But please do send some of your heat this way – aking we are not!

  18. All my summer holidays as a child were spent in Scotland and lunch was nearly always soup – it was often cold enough to warrant the comfort of hot soup. But please do send some of your heat this way – aking we are not!

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