Open-mouthed – Poems on food

Here, in Open-mouthed, the reader can find a rich à la carte menu of poems, some al dente, others al fresco, succulent morsels plucked from hedgerows and kitchens at home and abroad. But why have four poets from Devon come together to create a collection of poems about food, some of them light-hearted, some more serious? For the pleasure of it, no doubt, but also to raise money for the Dartington ‘Ways With Words’ literary festival.

This culinary gang of four also hopes to make these poems available to a wider audience, particularly now that the resurgent interest in local food is flavour of the month. Combining this with poetry seems an obvious step forward, to educate and enliven our tastes.

Alphabet Soup; Elvers; Eating Maize; The Meat Commission; Mushy Peas; Stuffing Balls; Curried Squirrel; The Hostess Trolley and Feeding the Dolls are just a few of the sixty-four poems. The poets are:

James Crowden who was born in Plymouth and has written nine books. He grew up on the western edge of Dartmoor where he developed a penchant for cider, pasties and saffron buns.

Lawrence Sail who lives in Exeter and has published nine collections of poems, most recently Eye-Baby (Bloodaxe Books, 2006);

Alan Peacock, who grew up in the Pennines, has published five collections of poetry and has lived in Devon since 1988.

Elisabeth Rowe lives on the edge of Dartmoor and read English at Oxford. Her first book of poems, Surface Tension, was published by Peterloo Poets in 2003.