[RCrawford]

Olēka

Olēka: The awareness of how few days are memorable.
— from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows


My double-decker spice rack glares at me.
In its glass eyes of marjoram and mace,
of fennel, cumin, saffron, savory
and coriander, I am a disgrace
to cookery. And if, at times, I'll toss
some basil and oregano to test
the limits of a bland spaghetti sauce,
the tarragon and chive are not impressed.
So, as the cream of tartar gathers dust
and dill weed fades to a diminished gray,
my days and months and years fly — as they must —
without a chocolate cardamom soufflé.
No one to blame, no one to hold at fault,
I take this poison with a grain of salt.

[RCrawford]

The sonnets are posted in no particular order.

I will make a brief comment on each “finalist” as I post it, but I will keep the comment limited to the positive aspects of the selection and save any critique for later.

I'll start the bake-off with a traditional Shakespearean sonnet, and it’s about cooking. I like the construction of the quatrains and final couplet: If this, and that, but then, so THIS. The word “poison” in the final line stands out and I take it to refer back to the spice like awareness mentioned in the epigraph (tying the sonnet together). I also like the play on words of “with a grain of salt.” I appreciate the discipline involved in narrowing the focus of the poem to a specific common item—a spice rack—and then letting the sonnet expand on it at the end to be about handling regret.

[Woody Long]

I imagine the spices lie slantwise into the rack so that the tops are the glass eyes glaring at the N. The spices are a kind of chorus for the drama.

More word play with impressed, L8.

The poem seems generally light in tone, despite the Obscure Sorrows of the epigraph. But then we come to L14 and poison. What would the chorus say? Unsettled, I reread & reread.

A memorable poem.

— Woody

[Susan McLean]

I enjoy this one. I have usually seen "chive" as plural, so that struck a wrong note for me, but the idea of the unused spices going to waste as a symbol for a life not lived to its fullest works for me. It reminds me of how most people have all kinds of spices that they never use, but never replace, so that if they ever do use them, the spices have lost their savor. I was resisting the message of "no one at fault" at the end, but then the poet winks at me with the poison and the grain of salt.

Susan

[Catherine Chandler]

I respectfully disagree with the DG that this is a poem "about cooking". I agree with Susan that chive should be in the plural.

[Orwn Acra]

Why, I ask the empty room, did the sonneteer ruin the ambiguity and exotic quality of the title, which sounds like a spice, by explaining it? Otherwise, I rather like it though there is the sense each line could do more, or sound fresher.

[Maryann Corbett]

Originally Posted by Orwn Acra

Why, I ask the empty room, did the sonneteer ruin the ambiguity and exotic quality of the title, which sounds like a spice, by explaining it?

For me, that definition works to make me read the early lines of the poem with an overlay of meaning that goes beyond cooking. While by lines 9-11 we start to hear a twinge of regret in the poem itself, before that it's all too easy to see just cookery there--or it would be, without that epigraph. Perhaps for that reason we could say that l. 9 is where the turn begins.

[Janice D. Soderling]

I think Oleka has to be explained. It isn't really a word, it is made-up.

What a fantastic start to Day 1. Both of them. I'll be back to say more.

[Roger Slater]

I love it. My only issue is that I don't quite understand the relevance of the title, even with the explanation, and I think I might prefer a more straightforward title, like "Spice Rack." And now I have to look up chocolate cardomom soufflés. I do have cardomom already (I cook Indian food all the time these days).

This is the only sonnet I've read in the bakeoff so far, and if this is any indication, the bakeoff should be fantastic.

[Siham Karami]

Yes, I think it's appropriate to a Bakeoff. But seriously this is an excellent start, and I think the sonnet works well by starting us off with a lower expectation spiced by a seemingly cryptic epigraph (in the context of thinking this relates to "cooking"). I love it when the last line changes everything.