Full with It

by Nikki Burst

It would seem that being both a poet and a writer of a food blog would make it easy for me to bridge these topics of poetry and food, but it doesn’t. In fact, the more I think, the hungrier I get, and so I stop to make myself a butter, banana and cheese sandwich. And then I photograph it.

Poetry and food are both about filling voids.

I figure that only about one percent of the time we experience shared human experience brought on by heightened awareness when we are touched by art – poetry, music, a painting, what have you – or an outstanding experience –birth, sex, death. In those moments, our lonely places tune in to each other.

But what has food got to do with this? I don’t know exactly.

What I do know is that within that ephemeral interconnectedness, our souls are filled with something and that something is nourishing. It gives us energy to wake, to speak, to shower, to lug ourselves to work, to buy groceries, to drink only so much wine, and to go to bed at a decent hour because we know that at some point we’ll come across one of those magical things again – whatever it is – and we will be full with it.

If I could spend my days overindulging, I would be obese on art. I would also be fat on weird sandwiches. But I think if I tried to fill either void all of the time, my senses would dull, and I would potentially miss out on the especially delicious moments in life. Therefore, I am arguing that we actually need to allow ourselves to grow hungry. Fulfillment must be fleeting to be fulfilling.

Nikki Burst is a writer and food blogger living in New York City. Her work can be found at Endive Civilization, Nerve.com, The Greenpoint Gazette, and Birdsong.