Cassendre Xavier recited this recipe at November’s Salon and I kept forgetting to post. I only have one problem with the wording of this recipe, it is prefaced by “For seducing a new lover.” Think this reinforces the fact that we tend to forget we should continue to seduce our lovers, whether they are new, old, or have been sharing our bed for ages with a marriage contract.
So I would like to suggest you create this recipe and share with all your lovers, no matter how long you have been enjoying each other’s company.
I truly enjoyed Cassendre’s style of presenting her words when she shared this recipe, most seductive.
(For seducing a new lover.)
Ingredients:
1 medium pot freshly cooked basmati rice
2 cups large (or 3 cups small or medium) shrimp
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen whole okra
6 of the firmest, reddest, medium-sized plumb tomatoes you can find
1 bag fresh organic raw spinach
2 large cloves of freshly crushed garlic
1 t. coarsely ground black pepper
(This ingredient is essential. Do not substitute.)
3 T. tamari or soy sauce
2 generous pinches, or ¼ cup of fresh or frozen basil
(a natural aphrodisiac)
3 T. olive oil
1 fresh lemon
4 T. water
Devein, clean, and rinse the shrimp in hot lemon water. Finely chop the basil and mix it with the tamari/soy sauce, garlic, water, and black pepper. Put these into a bowl with the shrimp, mixing with your clean hand (not a spoon). Think sexy thoughts as you handle the shrimp. Marinate for 2 hours in the fridge. Prepare a large, heavy frying pan or wok with the olive oil. Lovingly layer two of your favourite plates with the rice, spinach, and slices from the tomatoes. Slice them so that they most resemble vulva. Serve with a snakebite (half cider/half beer) or a sweet white wine. Recommended music: Sting’s Nothing Like the Sun, or anything by Sade.
From the chapbook “secrets & lies: poetry and other words” by Cassendre Xavier (ARtivist Publications)
Copyright © 2005 by Cassendre Xavier. All rights reserved. http://cassEndrExavier.com
Wow. I recall having a conversation with Philadelphia-based brilliant being CAConrad about how a mutual acquaintance of ours had critiqued another mutual friends’ poem. She’d gone so far as to suggest words be replaced and moved around. I think I know how the critiqued friend must have felt now.
The title of this piece is Shrimp Savannah: A Recipe. The first sentence beneath it is “For seducing a new lover.” This is perfectly intentional. This is not so much a recipe as it is a bit of creative writing. To me, it’s a poem, and it’s inspiration to get your hands slip slidin’ in some plumb tomatoes and sucking on some savory seafood before hopefully ravishing your sweetie just the same. “For gettin’ down with your old lady/old man” or “For stoking those flames of a longtime love” didn’t have the same ring of excitement to me. It didn’t “work”, and it wasn’t “the truth”, as my shero Streisand would say.
I do believe in keeping it hot with whoever you’re with, for however long you’re with them, but this is a work that I created to read just this way, and while I appreciate the dialogue the comment may begin about it, I feel disrespected as a poet. Perhaps if you knew it was a poem beforehand, you may see it differently?
I could understand if this were an essay about sexuality, but it’s not. It’s a creative, playful piece on sensuality. Therefore, I think the most respectful thing to do is to let it be exactly what it is, exactly as it was written. Whitman sang the body electric and I accept it just as he spoke it – I don’t need to critique it – the deud was so sexy, I’d rather just follow the vibe and get that same electricity flowing through my body and soul, and those of my partners.
I’d like whoever reads this to dig it with a major shovel and YES, seduce a new lover with it, because that’s how it was written to be used. The shrimp won’t taste the same, the tomatoes less slippery under the tongue, with a familiar love. For that, if you wish, I’ll write a new work. Or better still, write your own. Enjoy.
Cassendre Xavier (aka Amrita Waterfalls, aka Amethyste Rah)
renaissance negresse (musician,author,visual artist,actress)
http://cassEndrExavier.com
Founder & Executive Director of Philadelphia’s Annual Black Women’s Arts Festival (Est. 2003)
http://BWAFphilly.org
I apologize, deserve the hand slapping. I was trying to use this poem to prove a point – educate. We tend to forget to seduce our ‘old’ lovers, yes it will taste/sound differently with a new love, but why not treat our old love as a new love and see the response. Could be interesting. I like your writing, don’t take my use of proving a point that personally.
Thanks for the apology! I appreciate it and I also hope I didn’t come off too harsh-sounding. I’m perhaps a mite too sensitive. Again, if it were an essay, I might feel differently. I guess what triggered the response was wording like “problem”. And I think that, like you, and so many of us at the Salon, we’re really focused on things like what you said, NOT forgetting to keep things sizzling fresh with older partners. So I guess 1) having my poem negatively critiqued 2) for something I didn’t think I was guilty of promoting and 3) doing so publicly just kinda smarted.
But I agree with you that I took it too personally, and I thank you for the opportunity to share my work with a wider audience – yours!
Thanks again and looking forward to my feature of music and writing at the Salon on January 19th, 2010!
With respect and regards,
Cassendre
The salon is not an appropriate place for this question.