The cover suggests that ‘here be lemons’ and good company and a sunny clime. All well and good. A slice of Mediterranean life, perhaps. But there are two names on the cover. How is this going to work?

In fact it works very well and the two poets in question Lori Levy, Los Angeles-based but with a second home in Israel, and Neil Leadbeater, a West Midlander who lives in Edinburgh, combine to produce a delightful three-course meal.

Course one is from Lori who’s work repays re-reading as I didn’t appreciate the scope or depth of her work on a first perusal. She writes about favourite foods, cookies, for instance, in ‘Mint Milano’:

chocolate mint Milano, a favourite in my family
for five generations. Each bite I take
is a journey back in time to Nana Ceil in New jersey,
to her humor, her stories, the gold fillings in her teeth.
And then, she takes us forward in this land of familial passion:
They may laugh, but my youngest son heads to the kitchen
when he comes to visit – straight to the cabinet with the treasures,
for he, too, has inherited the mint Milano gene.

Lori writes inspiringly of ‘tilapia, fresh salads, shakshuka, kebabs’ while ‘At the Supermarket in Los Angeles’ and one feels this deep connection with family, over time and in many places. It’s the ‘flavour’ of the food that connects.

Neil Leadbeater is slightly less passionate, as one might expect, and considers, among other things, where food comes from and who grows it. He writes about the farmers, in ‘Grease-banding the Apple Trees’ his own family:

In the last days, we made our way to the trees-
disrobed them of their hay-bands, those coarse bits of
sackcloth that had caught the caterpillar codlin moths
and foxed them at their own game.

He also writes about one of England’s most celebrated cheeses in ‘The Double Gloucesters’, where, at the agricultural show:

Hard-pressed to declare
a winner, judges could not
praise enough their rich
nutty mellow flavours,
their apricot
Lady’s bedstraw yellow,
that mix of milk and cream.

The third course, ‘Dialogue Poems’, is no less rewarding with Lori speculating about what they might do:

If you bring a red-cheeked apple
from the Vale of Evesham,
I promise to come with a slice
of banana cake with pineapple cream.

Neil responds with an act of poetic theft, holding in mind William Carlos Williams’ glorious ‘This is Just to Say’:

I stole downstairs
in the middle of the night
and opened a line from
one of your poems…
took out the passion fruit
and ate it whole.

No forgiveness is required, Neil. It made me smile and it’s a fun and witty envoi to the whole collection. Here are two poets obviously and deliciously enjoying each other’s company. Their focus is ‘food’ and its complex histories but it’s all about the people, for food crosses borders and generations, with love, something we all hunger for at this time. Highly recommended.

Flavours by Lori Levy and Neil Leadbeater is published by Cyberwit.net

Simon Fletcher lives in the Oswestry Hills, Shropshire. He is a widely published and travelled poet who was short-listed for the Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year in 2022 and nominated for the Forward Prize (best single poem) in 2024. He’s performed his poetry across Britain, in Pakistan, Germany, Norway, and on BBC Radio. Simon runs poetry writing workshops in green spaces/places and MCs monthly live literature events. He’s also the manager of Offa’s Press. Simon’s pamphlet Wild Orchids, and the Offa’s Press books he has edited, are available at the Offa’s Press shop. Find out more about Simon at www.simonfletcherwriter.com