One day early on in these Covid days, I shut my computer, stopped working early and decided to make bread. This isn’t something I do often, and I always start with some trepidation. Yeast holds so much potential for triumph and for tragedy. Is there anything sadder than a lump of dough that gives rise only to questions? Was my water hot enough? Was it too hot? Was the yeast old? What’s the meaning of life anyway?
I needed a visceral experience and bread making is exactly that. I wanted to lose myself in measuring and mixing–in creating. I yearned for a sensory immersion — dusting puffs of flour, the rich, fungal scent of yeast, the pull of muscles in my arms, and the dense weight of fingers shaggy with dough. The feeling of dough becoming more springy, more elastic, as my working hands and arms wind up its potential.
And then comes the wait…holding my breath…anticipating…worrying…
There’s a true understated elegance to a loaf of homemade whole wheat bread. Tied to the fields with grain yet aspiring to the sky, bread transcends its humble fungal and grain origins to become much more than merely a sum of its parts. I was looking for that miracle, and on this particular day, I found it.
Making Bread
Yeast blooms
as surely as buds blossom
unfurling
its rich scent
with the elixir
of temperature
and time
Bread rises
transcending
its origins
of root-bound grains
and tiny fungi
a marriage
of earth and sky
everyday miracle
©Molly Hogan, 2020
The only thing better than the smell of bread baking is the taste of it, toasted and spread with some homemade jam.
Jam Gratitude
I’m
grateful
for jam jars
in my cupboard.
Summer concentrate.
Each taste a reminder
of warm sun, sticky fingers
of laughing, picking, gathering,
preserving berries and memories.
Saving the sweetness for a darker day.
©Molly Hogan, 2020
Thanks to Liz Garton Scanlon and her video about gratitude etherees for inspiring me to try this new-to-me form. I love the look–here it reminds me of spreading jam across my toasted homemade bread.
Thanks so much for stopping by Poetry Friday this week. To join in the fun, add your link below!
NOTE: I inadvertently set the time wrong in the party and as far as I can tell, there’s no way to undo that now that the link party is over! I’m so sorry!!! (If someone knows how, please let me know.) Let me know if you tried to link and couldn’t do so, and I’ll add you here!
Here’s Susan Bruck’s post about the three little kittens who lost their mittens: https://www.soulblossomliving.com/three-little-kittens-with-sock-and-glove-puppets/
Nix the comfort zone 
Oh Molly, your post had my mouth watering, and that line “Saving the sweetness for a darker day” is perfect for these times, when we are reaching for comfort.. I am not a big baker these days but, like you, found myself needing to this week. I made my first ever banana bread. It won’t be my last!
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You can’t ever go wrong with baking banana bread, Sally! I love adding coconut and chocolate chips to mine (and a touch of espresso), but classic works as well. Hope you enjoy that bit of sweetness.
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You are so domestic. I am reading this before dinner on a day that I did nothing but snack, so I am hungry. Mouth watering for that homemade bread and jam. I can’t remember the last time I made bread, but I think I had young children. Your poems are delightful with all of the senses emerging into a shared experience, even miles away.
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I’m not particularly domestic, but making bread always makes me feel that way–so does making jam for that matter. Too bad I don’t enjoy cleaning though…lol
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Molly, this is more than just beautiful, it’s therapeutic. That “need” to feel the making of something is so right for right now. I love your prose and your etheree. I’m a happy recipient of your summer concentrate…and just looking at this, I can taste the sweetness. Bravo, you!
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Creating, in whatever form, truly is therapeutic, isn’t it?
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Your bread photos and poem prove a double dose of comfort for these crazy days. Thanks for sharing and hosting, Molly.
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Carbohydrates make everything better! 🙂
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“Is there anything sadder than a lump of dough that gives rise only to questions?” THAT is the funniest thing I’ve read all week, and, like the rest of your post, was nourishment to the soul. Thanks for sharing all of this! (Great photos – I can taste that bread from here….) Thanks for your poetry, too, and for rounding us all up this week! :0)
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Thanks, Robyn. I cracked myself up when I wrote those lines–glad to know I wasn’t the only one who appreciated them. lol
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Your bread is gorgeous. Looks like whole wheat. Bread is a “marriage of earth and sky.” I enjoyed your ether celebrating your homemade jam. Lovely.
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Hi, Molly. I love your post. Bread IS an every day miracle. I have been sending out sourdough starter to yeast-deprived friends. (Love those live fungi.) It’s so much fun to see their bakes.
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I love that you’re sharing your starter with friends and then get to see their creations. What a wonderful way to connect!
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[…] Poetry Month project. Be sure to visit my friend and critique group partner, Molly Hogan, at Nix the Comfort Zone for the Poetry Friday […]
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Bread and jam for Molly is a comfort to all of us! “Summer concentrate,” “root-bound grains and tiny fungi.” Yum and double yum. Thank you, and thanks for hosting!
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Molly, this entire post is making my mouth water. From your description of making the bread (I agree with Robyn about “a lump of dough that gives rise only to questions?”) to both of your gorgeous poems, it seems that you gained much more than two loaves of delicious bread from your baking. Thank you for hosting today!
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Thanks, Catherine. It was definitely a therapeutic process with delicious results–this time! lol
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I love making bread – in fact, my 10-yr-old helped me make homemade Hawaiian sweet tolls for Easter, and tomorrow we’re doing homemade pizza dough! Your poems are perfectly on point, Molly – thanks for sharing, and hosting!
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(and my wife made her fantastic multi-berry chia jam to go with the rolls…out of this world.)
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How great that you’re making breads with your kids. I think maybe one of my greatest accomplishments as a parent is that two of my three adult children bake bread for fun! 🙂 I’ve been considering branching out into pizza dough (interesting phrase there!)–do you have a good recipe to share?
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Molly, this is EXACTLY the way my mind works these days: “Was my water hot enough? Was it too hot? Was the yeast old? What’s the meaning of life anyway?” It’s a great comfort I’m not the only one!
And I’m gluten-free because I have to be,so I’m teased and tantalized by your bread artistry. Your poems are beautifully delicious; your prose is also.
Thanks for hosting. (My link TeachingAuthors.com link goes live on Friday morning.)
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I’m glad you could relate, April. I did wonder if some people might think I’d lost my mind–at least, if I have, I’m in good company! 🙂
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Molly, this is EXACTLY the way my mind works these days: “Was my water hot enough? Was it too hot? Was the yeast old? What’s the meaning of life anyway?” It’s a great comfort I’m not the only one!
I’m yearning for a taste of your bread artistry. Your poems are delicious and beautiful and concise; your prose is, too.
Thanks for hosting. (My link TeachingAuthors.com link goes live on Friday morning.)
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Beautifully delicious post — your bread and jam poems and photos are like a warm, comforting hug that is much needed right now. I love your describing homemade bread as having an understated elegance. Food for body and soul. Thanks for hosting this week!
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I’m so glad you liked it, Jama, as you set the bar for food-related posts!
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[…] you a bit of calm and poetry. For all of this week’s Poetry Friday posts, head to Nix the comfort zone, where Molly’s baking bread and […]
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[…] Hogan at her blog Nix the Comfort Zone has a delectable post this week for hosting our Poetry Friday Roundup. She’s drawing all the […]
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Oh, yum! I especially loved the hopefulness of “as surely as buds blossom.” My husband has been baking a lot of bread lately, and I get to enjoy all his experiments. Delicious!
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Lucky you to get to enjoy another baker’s efforts. I’m the sole baking act around here these days.
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I love the everyday miracles your poems celebrate! And oh that bread looks tasty. (I pulled my jar of sourdough starter out of the refrigerator tonight where it spent Passover, and am happy to see it springing back to life.) And the final line of your etheree is wonderful–we all need some sweetness on darker days! Thanks for hosting.
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I’ve never tried sourdough, but clearly it’s gaining in popularity during these stay-at-home days. I do love the idea that people can share their starter with others.
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Yum, everything here is delicious Molly, your poems, breads, and jams! Now if only my daughter and I could get our hands on some yeast and flour, we could try creating some too… Love the pics–all so beautiful. Thanks also for hosting!
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I was so lucky that I had a fresh jar of yeast before this all began and plenty of flour. We still don’t see either at our store either.
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These poems are simply divine. I sent my faraway dad a cast iron dutch oven and some yeast so he can experiment with baking no-knead dutch oven bread. There’s nothing like homemade bread and jam in good times, but now…just the best. Thank you for your inspiration and beautiful, yummy words. And for hosting! xx
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Thanks so much, Amy! I’ve made that no-knead bread in a dutch oven and it’s fabulous! I love crusty breads even more than the standard loaves. Maybe I’ll try to dig up that recipe…
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Thank you for feeding my starved spirit with bread and jam and poetry, Molly. I never thought “fingers shaggy with dough” could sound so appealing. 🙂
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Like every other comment, I love your poems, Molly, that “summer concentrate” is perfect, but I love all the words, like a gorgeous essay with poetry that’s in a favorite book! It is inspiring me to get out the yeast & get going! Thank you for hosting an already tasty Poetry Friday!
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What a lovely compliment, Linda. Thank you! I hope you enjoy your bread baking as much as I enjoyed mine!
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[…] Molly is hosting Poetry Friday today, so head on over to Nix the Comfort Zone for all of today’s links and poetry fun – and…can you smell it? Fresh bread, […]
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Molly, what a fabulous sensory experience you baked up for us today! Not only were your photos staged beautifully to make my mouth water but your poems were lovely (and yummy). I want to create an etheree that flows beautifully like yours. Thank you also for your bird photo that I pared with one of my Quarantine poems.
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Thanks, Carol. Liz’s video is a great guide to writing an etheree.
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The senses are in full swing reading these poems Molly. A diversionary creative pursuit brought a poetic response. Bread and jam -many of childhood evoked for me. Love the way the words spread like jam applied to bread spreads its sweet deliciousness.Domestic delights, poetic outpouring- what a great coupling.
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Sometimes I forget how important it is for me to move away from my notebook and do other creative things.
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The sense are strongly evoked from the moment you begin making bread and bringing forth the jam. Love the way the words spread out mimicking the spread of the sweet conserve. The coupling of creative cooking and poetry makes this a most evocative experience for you and your readers. Thank you for also evoking memories of childhood and the treat of fresh bread and sweet gooey jam spread generously to enjoy. Thank you also for hosting Molly. Always a pleasure to read your beautifully crafted words.
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[…] lovely and talented Molly Hogan is hosting the Roundup at Nix the Comfort Zone. Sashay on over, share a few animal cookies with her, then check out the full menu of poetic […]
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This post is just lovely, Molly. I felt as if I were right there with you mixing, kneading, anticipating, tasting. My bread making experiences have met with mixed success, but last week I felt compelled to make Italian Easter bread. The experience, if nothing else, was very therapeutic.
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Italian Easter bread sounds so interesting that I had to go check it out. I’m not sure about the egg thing (though as a kid I would have LOVED that!) but I’m totally intrigued by the addition of orange or lemon to some of them. Do you add either of those to yours? My bread making experiences have been pretty limited. Maybe I’ll stretch myself into some new bread making areas–pizza dough? challah? or maybe even an Italian Easter bread!
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Wow. Three poems today. A prose poem (my favorite of the three), a bread poem, and a jam poem. Food for my soul. Now if I could just find yeast at the store. I’m a little behind the bread-baking curve and anxious for everything you described in your prose poem!
A news article about the need for aggressive contact tracing prompted my poem today. Writing it made me weep for my loss of physical contact with my students and for the complete loss of contact with one of them.
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I hope you can find some yeast and indulge in some bread therapy, Mary Lee. Yeast is still very hard to find around here, as is flour. The loss of physical contact is so hard, but I do wonder what our “new normal” will look like now that we’ve learned to fear proximity/touch, or at least be wary of it.
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[…] Happy Poetry Friday to you all. The round-up is at Nix the comfort zone. […]
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Your loaves are gorgeous! As are your poems. My husband has also been baking bread. I will share your poems with him.
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Thanks, Liz!
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Your bread (and jam and poem) is a triumph! I don’t do very well with yeast, so I can relate to your trepidation (if not to your outcome, haha). Thank you for hosting us! xo
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Thank you for hosting this week. Your bread and jam poems are lovely – Frances would approve! “the elixir of temperature and time” makes me think this is the combination we are anticipating right now as we await the effects of warmer weather and time to so we can rise again.
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Such a clever comment–love the reference to Frances and the hope that with time and warm weather, we can rise again.
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Bread and jam, bread and jam! Both poems and pics are simply lovely and comforting. I must ask: what kind of jam?? I’m seeing lots of nonets these days, and that makes me happy! Thank you for hosting, and for worrying over the bread. (I used a dutch oven, and it feels like magic when I lift that lid to see how it turned out….)
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Thanks, Irene. This jam was strawberry-rhubarb, a personal favorite 🙂 I typically make that, plain strawberry, blackberry and sometimes blueberry. Once in a while our rogue grape vine yields enough grapes for some grape jelly. I find making jam enormously satisfying. My pantry is actually quite bare right now because I slacked off a bit last summer. I love that dutch oven bread! Yum!
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Molly, as has been said so many times before in these comments, thank you for your wonderful poems and words. I wasn’t the only person who recognized your prose as a poem; there are a few wonderful lines mixed (kneaded?) in with all of the other wonderful lines. The sentences with “…so much potential” and “…anything sadder…” are two that really stand out to me. Thank you again for your words, and thank you for hosting!
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Thanks, Tim!
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Almost (but not quite) makes me wish I liked to bake:>) Thank you for this beautiful post and two poems. I especially love the etheree. Thanks for hosting!
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You don’t like to bake–gasp! lol I used to be a pastry chef in a past working life. Now that my kids are out of the house and my cholesterol was a bit high, I’ve stopped baking. Bread doesn’t count 🙂
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[…] my New England neighbor to the north, for hosting this week’s Poetry Friday roundup on her blog, Nix the Comfort Zone. This is the third roundup of National Poetry Month, and Molly is offering up some freshly baked […]
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“Summer concentrate.” Molly! This & all your words here, in & out of poems, are beautiful. I’ve now sat in your kitchen, tasted the fruits of your berry picking & felt the warmth of your hearth. With words & images. So so lovely, this generous post. And, new to me – a poem shape from you & Liz Garton Scanlon. A big Poetry Friday gift – appreciations!
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What a lovely comment, Jan. I do hope you try an etheree–they’re quite fun to write!
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Fresh baked delicious smells are wafting down the coastline to me, Molly. I can’t wait to get started with Laura Shovan’s sourdough starter that arrived yesterday. Have a slice for me, and slather on that jam. YUM!
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I absolutely love that Laura has been seeding the country with sourdough starter. It feels like there’s a story in there…how each person receives and creates from that one starter. Enjoy!
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Agreed. And what everyone has been making with their starter is incredible. It’s been fun to see their efforts in the FB group she created — Sisters in Sourdough.
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This is just scrumptious! I have been baking even more since being home and loving it. So far I’ve managed to keep the four of us here in bread of all kinds. I have had plenty of those doughs that raise questions, but fortunately my recent ones have fared better. I also wrote about baking bread today but not with such loveliness as you did. My heart sings at your description in prose and poetry.
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Your bread making sounds impressive. Keeping four people in bread for weeks!?! Wow! I’ve only made these two loaves in the weeks we’ve been home. Maybe tomorrow…
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Oh my, oh my…Molly!!! My mother used to make bread like this…and then my husband, but he hasn’t in a while. Oh the memories… the smiles! Thank you for this. Absolutely beautiful! And your poems and the fingers shaggy with dough… a true treasure.
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Thanks, Karen. I always feel linked to my mother and grandmother when I bake bread. That adds another layer to it all.
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My mouth literally watered as I read your post. My husband is the bread maker (and bread winner, now that I think about it 😉 in our house. I love your insights into yeast: “Yeast holds so much potential for triumph and for tragedy.” You definitely triumphed with your bread making and poem writing. 🙂
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Thanks, Bridget! That was actually the line that started this whole post.
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The description of the bread as marriage of earth and sky – so beautiful, something we take so for granted, that humble origins of our bread should be an “every day miracle” on which we depend. I became hungry immediately upon reading – the scent of baking bread – hardly a better aroma exists! And the jam! I love an etheree. The photos set it all off to perfection.
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Thanks, Fran. I’m always hungry for bread 🙂 In college, I snuck a toaster into my dorm room so I could have late night snacks of toast with jam.
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[…] Poetry Friday round-up is with Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone […]
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[…] is Poetry Friday! It is brought to us by NixTheComfortZone blog. Thank you for […]
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I love the poems on bread baking and jam! We have made both in our house since the pandemic started. I made sour cherry jelly from our own frozen cherries from our yard and my oldest son made bread! Yum! Both of yours look delicious! Thanks for hosting!
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Sour cherry jelly sounds amazing! I make blackberry jam and jelly most years from the bushes around our house. Using your own fruit makes it even more satisfying.
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[…] poetry-related links and posts from around the kidlitosphere. This week’s host is Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone. (Thanks, Molly!) Still confused? Renée LaTulippe has a great post about our weekly poetry […]
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Yummy bread, yummy poems. It’s been a dreary, rainy day, so “saving this sweetness for a darker day” was perfect for me.
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Molly your bread and poems are delightful! thank you for hosting.
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Form married with words is a bit like that rich jam spread across a slice of that fresh out of the oven bread, Molly. Sweet and satisfying. Thank you for hosting.
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