In Celebration of Partnership

I came across the following poem by Barbara Kingsolver while re-arranging my writing studio, in the midst of a rare week alone. The words leapt out and made me smile, made me hungry, and made me deeply grateful for my husband and the many gifts and talents he brings to our life.

In celebration and acknowledgment of a nurturing partnership, here’s the poem:

Daily Bread - for Steven

The clink of tin cups in the kitchen / rouses my ears. I close my book, / hold my place with a fingertip while / I listen: to the measuring cups, / little quarrels of half against quarter, / then the sifted hush of the flour. / There will be kneading, / there will be punching down, / and rising and rising again, / the press of increase constrained / by the small square box in the oven, / the immutable passage of time, / and finally a home and a hunger filled / with fragrant gold. / I return to my reading, but first / I thank the kitchen gods / for what marriage is: throughout this / immutable passage, these square / impossible constraints, these petty clinkings / of half against quarter, and oh / this needing, oh this falling and rising, / I am blessed / with a husband who makes bread.*

* from Another America/Otra America, Barbara Kingsolver, 1998.

** Photograph © 2006-2011 Steam Maker Bread Baker Company