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October Prompt: Glühwein Memories

By Seth Haines 12 Comments

wine

Perhaps it’s too early to be thinking about Christmas, but this Saturday I saw my first Christmas display at my local Mega-Mart. I love Christmas as much as the next guy, in fact, maybe a bit more. But when Frank Sinatra is singing “Let it Snow” before northwest Arkansas has endured its first freeze? This is getting ridiculous.

Yes, it’s too early to early to begin this celebration of the most wonderful time of the year, but this display has me thinking. Is it too early to mull up a batch of Glühwein? If Glühwein is the secret sauce to Christmas, my mother’s childhood friend Karen is the patron saint of the holiday. I remember her standing in my grandparents’ kitchen.  Karen makes us close our eyes tightly while she wraps spices in a muslin bag. “Family secret, ” she tells me and a few minutes later says I can open my eyes.

While sugar dissolves in water warming over the stove, Karen tells us, “it’s important to keep the water warm without bringing it to a boil.” She has two large bottles of burgundy table wine and she corks them. “If the water’s too hot, or if the wine boils, the alcohol evaporates, ” she says. “And what fun would that be?” Karen pours the wine into the water and I see it mix like a crimson cloud, swirling in the water. She drops cinnamon sticks in the mix, then the muslin bag and says, “now we wait.”

My mother is in the kitchen and she begs Karen for the recipe but Karen laughs, says she’ll take this recipe to her grave. “Not even for your best friend?” my mother asks.

Karen winks. “It’s proprietary, like the formula for Coca-Cola. Let’s go sing some carols, Susan, while the mixed-wine steeps.”

My grandparents passed on a few years ago, which means I’ve neither seen Karen nor tasted her spiced wine in some time. I walk by the spice aisle and consider dialing her number, asking her to give me just a hint or two. But some things are better left in Christmas past, I think. Some things are better left to simmer, and sweeten, and linger soft in the memory.

___________________________

October Poetry Prompt: Do you have a particular wine or beer memory that lingers? Have you put words to it before? Try penning a poem about that memory and leave it with us in the comments. We might share it with the world! (Or at least the Twitter universe.)

Now, let’s get our creativity brewing!

Tweetspeak’s October Beer and Wine Prompt:

This month’s theme at Tweetspeak is beer and wine poetry,  and we’re using words and phrases from beer and wine related products, articles, or musings as poetry prompts. We’d love you to join with us. How do you participate?

1.  Grab a cold one or a bottle of wine, a magazine article relating to beer or wine, or your favorite short story touching on the subject.

2.  Arrange a found poem containing words from the products. Make sure your poems touch on themes of beer or wine.

3. Tweet your poems to us. Add a #TSCheers hashtag so we can find it and maybe share it with the world.

4. If you aren’t a twitter user, leave your found poem here in the comment box.

5. At the end of the month, we’ll choose a winning poem and ask the winner to record his or her poem to be featured in one of our upcoming Weekly Top 10 Poetic Picks.

Now, let’s brew some creativity and see what we can uncork! Who’s first?

Photo by mu0hace_dc, Creative Commons via Flickr. Post by Seth Haines. 

_____________________

Buy a year of Every Day Poems, just $2.99 — Read a poem a day, become a better poet. In October we’re exploring the theme Wine and Beer.

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Seth Haines
Seth Haines
Seth Haines is a writer and photographer who loves the Ozarks, his wife and four boys, and a good collection of poems. He's the author of two books, both of which touch on addiction, sobriety, and spiritual formation.
Seth Haines
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Filed Under: Blog, poetry, Themed Writing Projects, writing prompts

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About Seth Haines

Seth Haines is a writer and photographer who loves the Ozarks, his wife and four boys, and a good collection of poems. He's the author of two books, both of which touch on addiction, sobriety, and spiritual formation.

Comments

  1. L. L. Barkat says

    October 29, 2012 at 9:22 am

    Okay, I want the recipe. Especially since I don’t have the soft memories 😉 Pick up the phone, Seth 😉

    It would be fun to get people’s favorite spiced wine recipes.

    Reply
    • Seth says

      October 29, 2012 at 4:29 pm

      I totally agree with the spiced wine recipe thing… Robbie and Schell–SHARE!

      Reply
      • Robbie Pruitt says

        October 29, 2012 at 8:55 pm

        Share what. . . I don’t have the secret recipe. . . Would love to have it too though. . . I would love to have that water to wine recipe as well. . .

        Reply
        • Seth says

          October 30, 2012 at 10:03 am

          Now… if you can figure that one out?

          I liked your poem, btw. Very nice.

          Reply
          • Robbie Pruitt says

            October 30, 2012 at 1:07 pm

            Thanks again Seth! I appreciate the opportunity to participate and your encouragement. . .

  2. Robbie Pruitt says

    October 29, 2012 at 10:57 am

    Wine from Water Flows
    (John 2:1-12)

    Empty vessels
    Strewn about
    Eager anticipation
    Alongside emptiness
    Without

    And then the wine
    Flowed
    From the Water
    Divine

    Religion and ritual
    Fade to celebration
    The best saved for last
    Abundance and grace
    In stark contrast

    © October 25, 2012, Robbie Pruitt

    Reply
  3. Schell says

    October 29, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    Great memories Brother! Let’s make some for Thanksgiving! It won’t be the same but we can think, drink, and talk about the holidays at Grandma and Grandpa Duckies and Karen’s warm crimson drink.

    Reply
  4. Glynn says

    October 30, 2012 at 10:44 am

    I went back to Paris: http://faithfictionfriends.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-red-rhone.html

    Reply
  5. Maureen Doallas says

    October 30, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    Drinking with Dickens

    in the damp and chill took mulling
    the pairings, wines and spices to swill.

    Scrooge for A Christmas Carol couldn’t
    resist, his drink the Smoking Bishop

    on which he’d insist, served in a bowl
    fashionably shaped like a miter, his head

    sooner and later made very much lighter.
    His was warm brew of port and red wine,

    roasted oranges on which in time to dine,
    thick, bitter rinds caramelized with cloves,

    then punched up with a trace of cinnamon,
    allspice, and mace, great knobs of sugar

    to sweeten to taste. Alas, dear Bob Cratchit,
    a fancy vision thins, for him and his missus

    it were jugs of hot gin. Mr. Bumble, his fame
    a name in Oliver Twist, swore by some lore

    called the Smoking Beadle. Imbibing wine
    gingered, boiled with raisins but haste,

    this mighty curative he’d quaff down to face
    the miseries of workhouse poor. Given not

    to charity’s chore, those higher in order
    demanded more. Theirs had a base not less

    than Champagne or a Rhine, the Smoking
    Cardinal, they called it, thought it so fine.

    And social climbers, professing class, made
    this a winter custom to verily last: to drink

    up Smoking Pope, a burgundy pour, glow
    red like irons while stumbling door to door.

    Reply
  6. Robbie Pruitt says

    October 30, 2012 at 7:42 pm

    Posted the poem, Wine from Water Flows, on my blog as well. Here it is:

    http://www.robbiepruitt.com/2012/10/wine-from-water-flows.html

    Tonight, I made the Mulled Wine.

    I was inspired.

    Here is what I did and it was excellent!

    Two tablespoons of cloves
    Two tablespoons of All Spice
    A teaspoon of ground nutmeg
    Three small cinnamon sticks
    Two Limes
    Two Oranges
    1.5 cups of water

    Squeeze the fruit above, then chop the fruit, with the spices and the water above.

    Boil all together for an hour or so and simmer.

    Add the sugar after the boil is reduced and 1 liter of your favorite red wine. Heat to the desired temperature, DO NOT BOIL.

    Strain into a pitcher and enjoy!

    I thought it was amazing and so did the neighbors here in Haiti. They said it smelled like Christmas. . .

    Ahh! . . . the grace and goodness of it all. . . abundance!

    This was fun! Thanks everyone.

    Reply
    • Donna says

      October 31, 2012 at 6:12 am

      Oh my!
      I have to try!

      I can almost smell the lime
      And the cloves.

      I feel warmer already.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. November Surrealism Poetry Prompt--A Musical Playlist says:
    November 5, 2012 at 8:01 am

    […] speaking of winners, the winner of last October’s beer and wine poetry prompt was Glynn Young offered “Art Form, With Beer,” in which he wrote: Done nobody put on a […]

    Reply

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