> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://dianaludwick.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Plentitude
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/maine-main/
- Published: 2026-07-10T18:34:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-10T18:34:00.000Z
- Description: “Plentitude” an homage to the fields and waters and homes of coastal New England, written Friday, July 10, poem 191 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo, "Party Lobsters," by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Generational, Homage, Lineage, Nostalgia, Of Place, Poems, Arctic, Celebrate, Chives, Coastlines, Converge, Crushed Ice, Crustaceans, Family, Farm Stands, Feast, Granite, Guest, High Summer, Icy, July, Lobsterman, Maine Lobsters, Mother, Negotiate, Pot, Puncture, relationships, Roiling, Slumbering, Summer, Tomatoes, Vacation, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

If fate and luck wills it,   
once a year we converge  
to celebrate family   
and summer   
and the bounty   
of granite coastlines  
and the feasts   
of local farm stands.  
If we are especially fortunate,  
a relative will negotiate   
with a lobsterman   
down the dock  
to secure a sack of   
*Homarus americanus*.  
Victorious, they appear  
hoisting a recycled,  
double-lined   
paper market bag  
wriggling and   
accruing puncture holes  
exposing sneak peeks   
of piqued crustaceans.  
One grown pair of hands   
will nestle the heavy sack   
among mounds of crushed ice   
separately procured   
from the local bait shop  
to begin the banded captives'  
gentle descent into icy numbness.  
Elsewhere,   
another pair of large hands   
will strong-arm a massive steam pot   
atop a portable induction burner   
propped on the picnic table.  
Once the arctic bath has   
performed its henchman job,  
an elder male approaches   
each slumbering decapod   
with an ice pick   
to swiftly dispatch   
one at a time   
before lowering each   
into the roiling water.  
In another pot,   
summer corn steams  
and tomatoes drip   
sultry seed pulp   
on walnut end grain.  
A guest is back-slicing   
chives from the garden  
and my mother is warming   
small ramekins of butter   
in the oven.  
And then  
it all comes together  
from the corners of   
the kitchen and the porch  
and the deck:  
a feast fit for high summer.