food

Lillian’s d’Verse prompt is to create a poem using at least one sweet/chocolate from a provided list. You can read the details of the prompt here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/07/22/who-has-a-sweet-tooth/

Throw out other chocolate

Bruxelles, Belgium

Chocolate capital of the world

A status assigned in 1912 when

Swiss apothecary, Jean Neuhaus Jr,

Together with his son, Jean II

Created the first chocolate filled pralines

An amazing taste explosion

That won the hearts of Belgians

Especially when packaged

In the exclusive ballotin

The innovative Louise Agostini

Soon the greater world

Discovered Belgian pralines

Not an ordinary confectionary

Like Snickers, Kit Kat, or Twix

Nor a praliné filling, comprising

Of ground caramelised nuts

Not the same thing at all

But a specific composition

Consisting of a chocolate casing

Made using 35% pure cocoa

With a delicious soft filling

That includes nuts, marzipan, coffee,

Salted caramel, liquors, cherry,

or a yummy chocolate blend

So put down the Chuckles,

Big Hunk Bars, and Three Musketeers,

Throw out the Bit-O-Honey, Skittles,

Sweetarts, and their confectionary like

And indulge yourself with delicacies

From Côte d’Or, Leonidas

Pierre Marcolini, or Neuhaus

Micro poem

decadently rich

smooth satin consistency

destroyer of waists

Thursday Doors

While in Bruxelles, we went on a chocolate tour and this is where I learned about a few of the chocolatiers and distributors of Belgian chocolate. These are a few of my photographs.

Picture caption: Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert Galerie (this is the covered mall in Bruxelles)

The chocolate tour started at the Les Galeries Royales, a covered mall in Bruxelles. It is a very upmarket mall that was originally for the royals and their friends only.

Picture caption: Another photograph of the undercover mall. It is very beautiful. You can see the many doors along the corridor

Picture caption: Front window of Leonidas, the first chocolate shop we visited

Picture caption: Front window of Neuhaus which calls itself the inventors (of pralines)

Picture caption: This is a doors challenge, so here is the door into Neuhaus

Picture caption: A chocolate bust of Jean Neuhaus Jnr and an example of Neuhaus chocolates

Picture caption: Window of Mary’s, a chocolatier started by a woman which makes it unusual as it was at a time when women did not own businesses

Picture caption: TC going through the door of BS40. This chocolatier is different as it is owned by a Japanese couple and has a distinctly Japanese flavour to its products

Picture caption: This is the door to the Atelier Sainte Catherine. This is the only one of the chocolatiers we visited that makes its chocolate on the premises in a factory at the back. I liked that aspect.

Esther Chilton’s writing challenge

This haibun is serving double duty for last week’s prompt of inspiration and this week’s prompt of faith. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/07/23/writing-prompts-75/

Private Library

By the time I was eleven years old, I had accumulated a large personal collection of books, ranging from children’s picture books to adult novels. Some of these books were birthday and Christmas gifts accumulated over my short life, others had been purchased at school and church fund raising fetes. I had quickly learned that book stalls at fetes were a fantastic place for me to acquire any book I wanted, regardless of suitability for a young girl. Volunteers barely glanced at my piles of books as they mechanically removed the price tags and totted up the total due. I always had a few bags on hand to stuff them into as quickly as possible. I managed to acquire a few gems like Lace, Princess Daisy, and various Dean R Koontz and Stephen King novels. I remember one book about a ship lost in the Bermuda Triangle that gave me nightmares for weeks.

Friends and my three younger sisters, regularly asked to borrow my books. This seemed like a reasonable request, but I needed to keep track of who borrowed which book. Inspiration hit and I decided to create my own library. I spent several weeks making card sleeves and cards for every book I owned. At that time, it was a few hundred as opposed to the few (three) thousand I now own in a physical form.

The day came when my library was ready, and I invited friends over to borrow books. They filled their names and the date on the beautiful blank cards and took my books away. Sadly, many came back damaged by bending or water stains and some never came back at all. This poor treatment of my most treasured possessions sadly shook my faith in humanity and I closed my library. I have never again loaned out a book that I wanted to keep. If I lend anyone a book it is technically a gift as I don’t want the post reading damaged goods returned to me. This was a life lesson I have never forgotten.

Water stained

Broken and battered

Veterans

Of neglect

And blatant indifference

Life lesson soon learned

Picture caption: This is my original copy of Tom Sawyer

Picture caption: This book, Tom Sawyer, still has the sleeve and card I made for my library inside it

Punam from d’Verse has provided this splendid challenge: Satiating the Soul

The Challenge

So, for the poetics challenge today I give you a sort of carte blanche. You could write about cleaning, cooking your favourite dish, the joy of giving or how you celebrate your favourite festival. Since Diwali falls a day after Halloween, I expect lots ghouls, goblins and candy galore peppering some poems. I am really looking forward to a smorgasbord of poems to sample and satiate my soul.

You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2024/10/29/poetics-satiating-the-soul/

AND

Esther Chilton played right into my mental hands by providing Fireworks as her challenge. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2024/10/30/writing-prompts-38/

And so, I rubbed my hands together in glee and came up with this: