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Bread Soup: An Old Icelandic Recipe

Intro by Ted Kooser
12.20.2006

Any­one can write a poem that nobody can under­stand, but poet­ry is a means of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and this col­umn spe­cial­izes in poems that com­mu­ni­cate. What comes more nat­u­ral­ly to us than to instruct some­one in how to do some­thing? Here the Min­neso­ta poet and essay­ist Bill Holm, who is of Ice­landic parent­age, shows us how to make some­thing deli­cious to eat. 

Bread Soup: An Old Icelandic Recipe

Start with the square heavy loaf
steamed a whole day in a hot spring
until the coarse rye, sugar, yeast
grow dense as a black hole of bread.
Let it age and dry a little,
then soak the old loaf for a day
in warm water flavored
with raisins and lemon slices.
Boil it until it is thick as molasses.
Pour it in a flat white bowl.
Ladle a good dollop of whipped cream
to melt in its brown belly.
This soup is alive as any animal,
and the yeast and cream and rye
will sing inside you after eating
for a long time.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Reprinted from “Playing the Black Piano,” Milkweed Editions, 2004, by permission of the author. Copyright © 2004 by Bill Holm. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.