The Laureates
October 7, 2025 – Ann is in OurLittleCorner today
The Laureates
While Andy is thinking about dog butts in today’s main blog, I’m still haunted by the poem about dogs entitled “The Revenant.”
Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the U.S., wrote the poem, and it’s even better to see and hear him read it (here…1:45 minutes into the video) than read it yourself.
From “The Revenant”: “I hated the car, the rubber toys,
disliked your friends and, worse, your relatives.”
was food and fresh water in my metal bowls.”
I still believe my favorite poem by our Glen Ellen neighbor – former Poet Laureate of the U.S. Ada Limón – is “How to Triumph Like a Girl.”
From “How to Triumph Like a Girl”: “I like the lady horses best.”
“I like their lady horse swagger,
after winning. Ears up, girls, ears up!”
(and, yes, these were my childhood horses, and, yes, I know my dear old pinto was clearly NOT a lady horse)
When I sit at our kitchen table, I still often think of “Perhaps the World Ends Here“, a poem by former Poet Laureate of the U.S. Joy Harjo.
From “Perhaps the World Ends Here”: “No matter what, we must eat to live.”
“At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow.
We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.”
And I’m still trying to manifest a recipe to go with the poem, “Residence on Earth,” by the newly-appointed Poet Laureate of the U.S., Arthur Sze.
Sze, the son of Chinese immigrants, was raised in Manhattan, graduated from Cal, and has lived for 50+ years in Santa Fe. In fact, he was Santa Fe’s first Poet Laureate (did you know that Santa Fe had its own Poet Laureate?).
A poem of Sze’s that I like and that seems especially relevant to this day and time is entitled “Residence on Earth.” He wrote it after having participated in the Medellín International Poetry Festival, which has been held in Columbia since 1991. The participating poets hope that their oral readings provide a salve for the violence and unrest for which Medellín was (is?) known.
“Poetry offers rich and nuanced landscapes of language to bring forth words, ideas, perspectives and stories that aren’t able to be captured and aired in more direct, conventional language….It is a genre that offers itself up to dreams, hopes, new beginnings—all things much needed in a world polarized by ethnic wars, religious conflict, and complex discriminations,” writes Shivani Sivagurunathan, a Malaysian poet who recently read at the Medellín festival.
Residence on Earth by Arthur Sze
As we approached the front door, I noticed
grills on the windows, bullet pockmarks
in the wall; inside, a maid served us salad,
potato and cilantro soup—and I saw,
in the amphitheater above Medellín,
the stage where twenty-eight poets read;
clouds gathered; in the ensuing downpour,
I expected the five thousand people to rush out;
instead, a sea of umbrellas appeared,
and people swayed under them; when the readings
resumed, a poet stood, chanted in Vietnamese,
and when I stepped up to the podium,
two rivers flowed down the steps to the far right
and left; as I read our emotions resemble leaves
and alive to their shapes we are nourished,
I understood how poets from all over the world
had come for peace, solidarity, justice—
and when my host, and reader of my poems
in Spanish, invited me into his home, I saw
one way to live during our residencia en la tierra.
Actually, manifesting the recipe wasn’t that hard. I just had to read and re-read the line from Sze’s poem about being served potato and cilantro soup while visiting Columbia. Ajiaco is a well-known Columbian dish, a soup with chicken, potato, and cilantro. And that’s our recipe for today!
(corn on the cob would be more authentic but frozen corn kernels are easier and always available.)
Ajiaco - Columbian Chicken, Potato, and Cilantro Soup
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 T Diamond kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 4-5 c chicken broth (I used 4 tsp Roasted Chicken Better Than Bouillon)
- 2 lbs mixed potatoes (red, Yukon Gold, and russets), cut into bite-size chunks (peel the russets and the red but not the Yukon Gold)
- 2 T dried guascas (if you don’t have guascas – a distinct possibility – substitute 1 tsp dried oregano or Mexican oregano)
- 2 to 3 ears fresh corn, cut crosswise into quarters, or 10 oz frozen corn kernels
- 1/2 c chopped cilantro
For toppings:
- 2 avocados, pitted, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/2 c Mexicana crema, sour cream or crème fraîche
- 1/2 c chopped cilantro
- 2 T drained capers, chopped
Combine chicken thighs, onion, garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper, broth, potatoes, and guascas in a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Add more water if necessary to cover solids by 1-inch. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook until chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes. Remove chicken thighs and set aside to cool and then cut or shred into bite-size pieces. If the potatoes aren’t yet fully cooked, continue to cook them in the broth until totally tender.
When the potatoes are cooked and very soft, take a whisk and mash some of the potatoes against the side of the pot and stir to thicken the soup. Then add the corn and the cilantro and simmer with the lid on until the corn is cooked – about 5 minutes longer if using cobs of corn – or 2-3 minutes if using frozen corn. Return the chicken to the pot. Simmer another few minutes until the chicken is warmed through. Ladle the soup into individual bowls and place the toppings on the table to be passed around.
Recipe brought to you by BigLittleMeals.com and Andy and Ann.
