Codswallop Stew
by Anna Cates
In a maritime village
Harbored in mountain shadow
An old fisherman eats
His codswallop stew
Each fishy silence to foghorn blast
He savors the nonsense
Seasoned with butter and bacon
The potato and leeks
That cod-man is you
Who share the same reek
Succumb to the same grave-rot
Drown in the same codswallop stew
Anna Cates lives in Ohio with her two beautiful kitties and teaches English and education online, including graduate level courses in creative writing. Her first full length collection of haiku and other poems, “The Meaning of Life,” is available at Cyberwit.net and Amazon: http://www.cyberwit.net/authors/anna-cates. Poems by Anna Cates are also available in the “Living Haiku Anthology”: http://livinghaikuanthology.com/poet-portfolios/290-c-poets/anna-cates.html
What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “CODSWALLOP STEW”? Sometimes, I become intrigued by unusual vocabulary words that inspire me to write. “Codswallop” was a term I ran into online that interested me. It means “nonsense,” but it sounds like a chowder fishmongers would dine on in quaint Maritime villages. . . As I considered the word further, I decided I simply had to write a poem about it. I derived at “Codswallop Stew.”
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