Ten Poems about Chocolate

Everyday treat, indulgent luxury or an addiction we can’t or won’t break – many of us have a passionate relationship with chocolate, making it perfect subject matter for poetry. This luscious mini-anthology celebrates preferences for milk or plain, pralines or fondants, rich truffles or the sweetest hot chocolate drinks. Anyone who has ever craved chocolate will identify with poems that explore its sensuous aspects – taste, texture, mouthfeel – in an intensity akin to love. And if chocolate is like love, then these poems explore the depth and shape of that love: “Knotted smoke, dark punch of earth and night and leaf, for a taste of you any woman would gladly crumble to ruin.” from ‘Chocolate’ by Rita Dove These entertaining, unexpected and moving poems also explore the history of chocolate, and the price paid by those whose hard work brings it to our lips. Selected and introduced by Di Slaney. Poems by Clare Best, Alison Brackenbury, Barbara Crooker, Rita Dove, Roy Marshall, Ife Olatona, Pauline Prior