From Sweet Desserts to the Desert

Dr. Hope Blecher
3 min readApr 3, 2023

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Inspired by Passover Recipes

Foreground is the toffee and on the laptop is the beginning of the poem

Plant

Plant based

Plant based butter

Bought

— — —

Dark

Dark chocolate

Dark chocolate chips

Found

— — —

Flour

Flour and water

Unleavened flour and water

Boxed

— — —

Pan

Pan and parchment paper

Pan, parchment paper and oven mitts

Ready

— — —

Bubbling

Bubbling toffee

Bubbling toffee flowing

Poured

— — —

Flowing

Flowing voices

Flowing voices of joy

Heard

— — —

Streaming

Streaming lines

Streaming lines of people

Seen

— — —

Seeing

Seeing straight

Seeing straight ahead and back again

To watch

To watch out

To watch out for an attack

To survive

To survive plagues

To survive the attack of ten plagues

— — —

Looking

Looking for a sign

Looking for a sign of survival

To watch

To watch out

To watch out for water

— — —

Water

What is water?

Water is life

Life

— — —

Life

Life flows

Life flows in water

Flowing in water is a plant based basket

— — —

Basket

A basket

A basket made of plants

A basket made of plants and tears

— — —

Tears

Tears and sand

Tears, sand and sweat

Sweat

Sweat and salt

Sweat, salt water, and bittersweet tears

Sweat, salt water, and bittersweet tears of birth

— — —

Birth

Birth of secrets

Birth of secrets and servitude

Birth of secrets, servitude and freedom

Freedom

Freedom to pause

— — —

Pause

Pause to retell

Pause to remember

Pause to count

Pause to be counted

Pause to ask

Pause to answer

— — —

Answer

Answer a call

Answer the call

The call

The call for freedom

Freedom

— — —

Free

Free to drink

Free to drink water

Free to drink water from the well

— — —

Well

Well enough

Well enough to sing

— — —

Sing

Sing of freedom

Sing of freedom and dance

Sing of freedom and dance with timbrels

Freedom to sing and dance with timbrels across the desert

— — —

Desert

Desert of life

Desert of life and death

Desert of life, death and remembrance

— — —

Remember

Remember the ingredients

Remember the ingredients of your beliefs

— — —

Believe

Believe you can

Believe you can survive

Believe you can survive and thrive

— — —

Thrive

Thrive forwards

Thrive forwards with one step

Thrive forwards with one tiny might step

— — —

Steps count

Recount

Count

Out

— — —

You

You count,

Not

To

Forget

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An original poem by Hope Blecher Croney

This was written in response to the ArtQuest 30works30days challenge I am participating in for the month of April. The prompt was to do something backwards.

My backwards was starting with baking desserts for Passover before cooking the first course of a meal during which we gathered to tell the story of an exodus.

The dessert I baked first was matzo toffee. The ingredients were plant based butter, dark brown sugar, matzah, dark chocolate chips, sweet raisins, and salty nut pieces.

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Dr. Hope Blecher

Educational consultant, teacher, administrator, community volunteer, author