Peasants Eat Herring – A Poem

This drawing reached out to me across three-hundred years. It, in turn, took me back in time in memory.

I love that these journeys are happening as a result of my decision to commit to this ekphrastic poetry series. Too often, I push art and writing aside, especially when life gets in the way. However, whenever I return, I am reminded that art (and, by “art”, I mean anything creative) is often what makes life richer. Not too many people are moved by dust, or a ledger – but a song about dust (“Dust” by Steve Winwood), or a movie about ledgers (“The Big Short” directed by Adam McKay) make it a whole ‘nother ball game.

There’s more information about the artist and the drawing in the source link in the caption. More of my ekphrastic poetry here. More on free verse here.

Peasants Eat Herring, Bread and Butter

In the time I could tell you
the number of times I’ve eaten
herring, bread and butter
I will have travelled
backwards decades
to a childhood
of herring, bread and butter
dill pickles, beetroot soup
dumplings in milk
sauerkrauts and sausages
tinned “new world” food
(that smelled and tasted tinned)
and the thickest of cheesecake
the sweetest of tortes
eaten at a table covered
with plastic to protect the wood
in a kitchen of linoleum
with a stove that belched gas
where a navy ice cream tub
was repurposed as a recycling bin
and a scruffy mongrel dog slept on the floor.

I would wish it were possible
in that time, for just half an hour
to be there again.

©elsp 2025