Cooking Up Good Things

August 28, 2026

Cooking Up Good Things

june vacation recipe
—a real humdinger!

1930’s camp,
maine pond, new friends next door,
nine days, warm temps—serves 2

—dotty seiter

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Notes about poem and art:
• I didn’t notice until several weeks after I wrote “june vacation recipe” that, except for its first “word”—which is actually in numerical form—it is made up entirely of one-syllable words, truly a humdinger of a recipe! While this haiku holds the traditional 17 syllables, I tweaked the recipe—as all good chefs do—in this case with lines of 5, 6, 6 instead of 5, 7, 5.
• I have loved inventing a free-form recipe and cooking up Hail, Hail, improvising and adjusting seasonings en route. The title of the collective piece has a double significance: first, all the pieces found their way back to being in one place together and, second, that reunion took place at camp where the welcome song ends with the words, Hail, hail, the gang’s all here while you’re at Takodah Camp!

artist at play

after kata hull, caroline at camp!, life of a work in progress

Posted by:

Dotty Seiter

2 responses to “Cooking Up Good Things”

carol lee

August 28, 2026 at 3:26 am

Didn’t quite the 1930’s bit….. When I read your poems or others as well I try to get the feel, not the rules…. so tweak on as much as you want. It’s probably the same process when looking at a painting.

I find all ingredients of a pleasant 9 days: a lake,good weather,new encounters, and the closeness of 2

What a gang! Are they stuck down… maybe mixing them up a bit…

Funny how sometimes the blog remembers me and sometimes I have to sign in… temperamental! today I am signed in, my avatar showing!

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  August 28, 2026 at 5:55 am
  
  I read/listen to poetry to get the feeling also. When I write poetry, I like to consider “the rules” to see how or if they’ll collaborate in finding the best possible expression, and when writing notes to my followers, I often like to share details about form/rules as a way to elucidate process. All very engaging to me! Loved your saying “tweak on as much as you want”—that’s what I do!!
  
  That “gang” in the photo is not stuck down, but I wanted a photo of them with the color squares in the same positions as they were before I cut the work as a whole into tiles and began embellishing. I did mix them up in a variety of ways for fun before sending them off one by one to Caroline in no particular “order.”
  
  Sign-ins at various blogs are indeed temperamental—I run into that all the time and have no idea what leads to the vagaries. Glad all was on the up and up for you today!
  
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My Story

In 2014, I grab an unexpected opportunity to paint.

To make art.

I get hooked.

In 2015 I start a blog—a diary of my creative practice.

I post my paintings and their stories. The good, the bad, the ugly.

In 2025 I begin writing poetry and include a poem and painting in each post.

My compass points: shake hands with fear, be playful, get messy, trust my gut.

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