Never eat more than
your head weighs.
My food won’t spoil with
unmerciful jest.
I suggested a recipe which made
my heart sore.
My virtue has been
the wish to eat
and good cookery.
Eating is a relief,
given a skillfully cooked fish.
A good kitchen is a curious
genius like headcheese.
My stomach thought about those
triumphs and admitted
the fervor of our collected madness.


From pages 168-169 of The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand by Jim Harrison (Grove Press, 2001).