The slow sizzle of sautéing onions was interrupted when Søren, donning a plaid woolen flat cap, came wandering into the kitchen asking for an interview with the cook. The accent was, thick, Russian gone awry, picked up most likely from his brother’s daily Rosetta Stone lessons. The newsboy was serious about collecting data for the morning edition. I told him that the evening special was vegetarian spaghetti. He scribbled on notes of Post-Its neatly organized on a hand held whiteboard, thanked me for my time (I think, the accent was t-h-i-c-k), and went on his merry way.
When everyone was tucked into bed and I was tidying up for the next day’s chaos, my knee jerk reaction was to be annoyed with the little newspaper reporter slumbering angelically in the other room who left a trail of sticky tabs, pencils, and dress-up clothes from the kitchen to the end of the Earth, but thought twice when I read, “Window takes over World.” I burst out laughing. Window takes over world? What an awesome headline! Forget the headline, tomorrow that awesome phrase would become a fabulous prompt for my poetry workshop!
So I collected the trail of little handwritten notes for future fodder, put the pencils in the drawer, threw costume accessories into the closet, and sat with a cup of tea crafting a lesson in my mind around the phrase of the day. Sometimes the best writing lessons happen spontaneously in the kitchen.
– Kim