A huge thank you to people who used their imagination to write amazing Odes to our leafy friend Rhubarb.
We have received over 80 poems and you can read and listen to them here on this page, as read by members of The Merry Dairy team!
And now, after counting the comments and in-depth evaluation of the judges, The Merry Dairy is pleased to announce the winners of the rhubarb poetry contest who won some Rhubcoin!!!
Sonnet: Poem #5 by Stevo
Freeform: Poem #4 by Kathleen
Haiku: Poem #9 by Ryan and Poem #32 by David (yes, we had a tie!)
These poems were submitted as part of the Be A Rhubarb Bard Poetry Contest and the Rhubarb Stalk Exchange (both now closed)! Read or listen to them all!
Poem #1: Haiku
Stalk phrases
broad leaves red and green,
sour stocks in springtime sky,
I scream for rhubarb!
Poem #2: Freeform
Rhubarb, your such an odd weed
Your taste is unique, very cool
No one thinks of you as feed
Until the first chew, its like falling backwards into a pool
Poem #3: Freeform
Taking Stalk
Shelley Posen
If your rhubarb plant could only speak
This is what it would say—
“Use this harvesting technique
So I increase from day to day:
Don’t cut with knife that’s sharp or dull
(This is known in ancient lore)
Grab stalk by stalk at the base and pull
And soon I’ll grow some more.
Poem #4: Freeform
Dearest rhubarb
You are a gift from Aunt Rosemary
when we moved to Hintonburg
almost twenty years ago.
From her garden in Cornwall,
to ours.
You’ve grown, faithfully,
as the neighbourhood’s changed,
as neighbours moved in
and moved away.
Each year you remind us strawberries
are in season. It’s time to pull you
gently up for the first harvest
Time to make our famous
Strawberry Rhubarb Stew.
Though we tend to neglect you –
busy with bike rides up to Gatineau
training for Ottawa Race Weekend
birthdays and graduations,
and all the other things
that turn days into years,
moments into memories.
You grow and stretch each spring.
Someday, when the children move away,
when they have their own small gardens,
I’ll dig up a few of your roots
and you’ll keep growing
wherever they end up.
Poem #5: Sonnet
Ode to Rhubarb
When winter wanes and springtime knocks,
Out come tender, fleshy stalks
That taste most tart, but when they’re stewed
Create a most celestial food.
In crisps and crumbles, tarts and pies,
They tempt the palate with surprise
But best of all in the extreme
Is savoury-sweet rhubarb ice cream.
Those with verdant garden patches
May consign their tangy batches,
Whence our Merry Dairy may
Transform the stalks to crème glacée.
In cone or cup or crimson garb
There’s none can match the fair rhubarb.
Poem #6: Sonnet
My vibrant rhubarb, you inspire me to write.
How I love the way you grow, thrive and stand,
Invading my mind day and through the night,
Always dreaming about where you are in the land.
Let me compare you to a sunny Tuesday?
You are more dreamy, pleasant and fine.
Skilled breeze flaps the pleasant dancers of May,
And the springtime has the ideal punchline.
How do I love you? Let me count the ways.
I love your freshness, texture and taste.
Thinking of your scent fills my days.
My love for you is the red aftertaste.
Now I must away with a bursting heart,
Such as you burst through the soil metres apart.
Poem #7: Haiku
Mischief of youth
Purloined fruit snatched in haste
Alas, rhubarb
Poem #8: Freeform
I am Rhubarb
No love
Ignored
A weed?
No
Sweet and tangy
To be adored
Please love me
Poem #9: Haiku
Rhubarb
I don’t like sour stuff
It is a new food for me
New ice cream for me!
By Ryan (age 9)
Poem #10: Freeform
Rhubarb. I put my shoes on back to front to step into the past, sent my watch by express mail to make the time go fast Rhubarb. My husband bought a little treat, A favorite thing I love to eat Rhubarb Pie. Oh for a taste of rhubarb pie! And Get one than Thats a New Day!!
Poem #11: Haiku
Rhubarb
Rhubarb can be sweet
Just add the sugar and BOOM!
It is VERY sweet
Jeremy (age 8)
Poem #12: Haiku
Rhubarb
Pink, sour rhubarb
A little sugar sweetens
Leaves are poisonous
Ty (age 7)
Poem #13: Haiku
Rhubarb is so good
Like ice cream and gummy worm
I adore rhubarb!
Poem #14: Haiku
rhubarb as a child
spring sticks dip in sugar cloud
sweet crunch tart again
Poem #15: Haiku
Sweet stalks your garden
How does that rub your rhubarb?
Spring’s promise is tart
Poem #16: Freeform
Tart and tangy and a little bit ‘zangy’. Mixed in with cream, makes a frozen dream.
Poem #17: Freeform
Spring is here at long last,
Oh to break my rhubarb fast!
Stalks of succulent green and red
Used to grace my garden bed ,
Gone now to fate unknown
All the rhubarb I have grown!!
Poem #18: Freeform
I rue the day
rhubarb came my way
when people ask “what is the reason?”
I simply state: “too short a season”
Poem #19: Freeform
Rhubarb Pie
My bitter leaf; large and broad
stalk so red and sweet
Children to their mother’s arms wide
running, laughing to enjoy a treat
Cooling on the window I’m
baked in a pie the children greet
Dad is home from the hunt
his skill provides the family’s meat
Poem #20: Freeform
Early bird songs wake the day
and lilac on the air
the broad rough leaves are creeping
beyond my neighbours yards
This first plant I could allot
warms me with vibrant reds
And it’s hearty strength bares on
when all else in the plot has withered
I can’t help being heartened
that such a tart anything
could be so dearly cherished
Poem #21: Haiku
Spring’s first offering
Stocky, leafy, red and green
Tart, delicious treat!
Poem #22: Haiku
A rhubarb haiku
Has seventeen syllables:
Five, seven and five
Poem #23: Haiku
Rhubarb rhubarb rhu-
barb rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb.
Am I being clear?
Poem #24: Freeform
Early Riser
Rhubarb, the first to rise this droughtful spring,
struggles up through drowsing ground weeks
before annuals even learn their names.
Driven out of formal gardens, its red periscopes
live rough in lanes, spread to vacant lots,
occupy sketchy alleys.
Rhubarb’s a thriver, her scalloped skirts flap
wider than a road, surpass neighbour weeds.
Desperate to be noticed, she pays her way
in leafage.
The odd gardener relents, chews and spits
a stalk or two, chops and cubes, sugars sauce.
There are never any takers.
Rhubarb the Artefact, housed in Gem jars, waits
in cellars, labels pasted on in a ghost aunt’s hand,
the day, the month, the year of preservation.
Poem #25: Freeform
Rhubarb triggers up from a root
Into a stalk and a poison leaf
By the shade of cement a cavern grows
just in the spot beneath
where rhubarb rises against cement
and pushes it up unimpeded
In a wrong of land littered and sand
A germination lifts for its life undefeated
Poem #26: Haiku
Rhubarb is awesome. Rhubarb can be sour. Rhubarb is a vegetable.
Poem #27: Freeform
Rhubarb is the king
It can be used in anything
Rhubarb is pink and green
It is better then a bean
You can eat it with frozen custard
That’s way better than with mustard
You can get rhubarb ice cream at the Merry Dairy
Like ice cream with crumbled berry
Now that is the end of my poem
Now go have some for yourself everyone.
Poem #28: Haiku
See rhubarb ice cream
Sweet and tasty as I eat
Love rhubarb ice cream
Poem #29: Freeform
Pink, fleshy, edible stalks fill my heart of dreams, as the perennial dances in the spring.
When raw it’s very sour, but with some sugar on the cooker, it’s lovely sweet and sour.
Crisps and crumbles, pies or tarts it tastes supreme especially in merry dairy ice cream!
-Cedar C
9 years old
Poem #30: Sonnet
Distinguished Queen of Summer Crumbles
Tart and sweet, you are a heavenly delight
Canes dipped in dazzling sugar, maple or honey
Whatever the choice, I won’t grumble
Beneath your leafy canopy, hidden gems stretch upward
Refusing to be dwarfed by others
Harvesting doesn’t wilt your spirit or smother
You come back every year with profuse bounty for this Bard.
Who knew you’d be in such demand
Worthy enough to be precious currency in 2021
No savings plan, simply to share and nourish everyone
That’s what The Merry Dairy commands
Don’t fret, I’ll be the guard-on-watch
Ensuring Ori doesn’t mulch your glorious patch!
Poem #31: Freeform
Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb
Anticipatory ruby stalks.
Roses you are not.
Peaches you are not.
But every May, near Mother’s Day
your feisty fronds out front present.
3 more days, 2 more days,
You pump and pump and pump.
Mmm, mouth watering feature
long awaited Spring Feast.
Rhubarb cordial, rhubarb tea
and a single tall tart branch
to crunch and crunch and pucker-up
Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb
Your ruby stalks are here!
We wait a little longer
Sweet Pie dreams of your so soon coming out.
Poem #32: Haiku
Field mice scurrying
Red stalks, green umbrella leaves
Sheltering from rain
Poem #33: Haiku
Paper cups of sugar
Ragged red stalks, sweet and tart
Laughter of children
Poem #34: Freeform
Rhubarb for you
Rhubarb for me
It tastes so good
It makes me go weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Poem #35: Freeform
Somebody was talking about Guy Fawkes
Underneath the bridge beside the old locks
Standing in the weeds and the rhubarb stalks
They needed redemption
A sugar intervention
Everybody ready to draw their last breath
Vowing they would follow the cursed Macbeth
Underneath that bridge they would all meet Death
By rhubarb pie
The only way to die
Poem #36: Haiku
Barb was gone this morn
Rue your leafy broken stem
Summer love squandered
Poem #37: Haiku
spelling mistakes are forever
like Rubaiyat, for
Omar Khayyam’s Rhubaiyat
Poem #38: Freeform
Mary Dairy you are so mary you make my day so nice with your ice cream is the best I love your merch and I love your ice cream and I also really like rhubarb.I hope I win.😍😍😍
Poem #39: Freeform
i love rhubarb its good for us and you and you make good ice cream
Poem #40: Freeform
Rhubarb, how we do love thee. its stem is green,pink crimson red and has a delicious taste! used in ice cream yes it is, has a tart taste but is perfect for cake! mix it with berries and scream! how delicious, how delicious it is!
Poem #41: Haiku
Rhubard is healthy
Vitamin C and Fibre
A good ice cream treat
Poem #42: Haiku
Magical rhubarb
Just right tartness, marries sweet
Creates perfection
Poem #43: Freeform
rhubarb, i am
what some would call
a wink-wink tart
a taste of
spring youthful
for a tired winter heart
tread lightly dear
too much of me, and
you will ride the sirens
all doubled up
needing a jump start
Poem #44: Haiku
great fruit flavour
sweet and sour at the same time
hurray for rhubarb
elise, age 9
Poem #45: Freeform
Raiders
In October we steal tires to burn for Fawkes
Easy pickings round town—most front yards
Just dig sites of dinosaur trucks
Parts and bones rusting in rain and fog.
In May we raid rhubarb from Mrs Parsons,
The Coombs, old lady McCarthy.
Jumping fences at midnight, skulking like cats
cutting stalks we shove down our shirts and pants.
The jolt as lights flick on
The bark of the dog; the salt gun, potato gun
I’ve called the cops on ye yelled at our running shadows.
Panting, clapping each other’s jean-jacket backs
We pile our theft at Fern Street woods
Grab a stalk and bite into the sour cords
none of us like but fishhook our mouths
with lures of youth, of dares, to be worth
A story.
Poem #46: Freeform
Rhubarb, we do love thee. its stem is green,pink,crimson red and tastes delicious! has a tart taste but is perfect for cake! mix it with berries and scream! how delicious, how delicious it is!
Poem #47: Freeform
Mary Dairy you make my day mary.you have delicious ice cream and I love your ice cream and so so good.I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream.😍😍😍
Poem #48: Haiku
Rhubarb Haiku
The rhubarb is tart
Stalks are green, pink, crimson red
Perfect for ice cream
Poem #49: Freeform
Rhubarb, how we love thee.its stem is green,pink,crimson red and taste delicious! it has a tart taste but is perfect for cake! mix it with berries and scream! how delicious how delicious it is!
Poem #50: Sonnet
sweet or sour bitter or weird pink green crimson red every color Makes Me glad I’m glad you chose someone who wins and I hope they get to have Mary Dairy ice cream You Make Me Mary Mary Dairy ice cream you make me scream and I make you scream and we all scream for ice cream from the Mary Dairy
Sofia 9 years old #grade 3 student
Poem #51: Haiku
OCSB grade 3 virtual class
The rhubarb is tart
Stalks are green, pink, crimson red
Perfect for ice cream!
Poem #52: Freeform
I put my shoes on back to front to step into the past, sent my watch by express mail to make the time go fast.
Poem #53: Freeform
Oh rhubarb oh rhubarb how delicious you are oh rhubarb oh rhubarb you stand out from far. you are the king you make my heart ring I just want to scream because you make great ice cream but yes you have some fruity competition but being the best is your mission I might just have a few but I enjoy every chew how many hungry people do you feed? I never think of you as a weed. oh rhubarb I love you but what do I do I want more of you in my patch but my gardening techniques just don’t match. All the red and pinky green, it’s so extreme if I grow you in my garden I know I will win!! Oh yum yum yum I know you’re the tasty one. All the yumminess of rhubarb ice cream, now you know what I mean I love rhubarb ice cream and in my mind you make the best kind.
Poem #54: Freeform
Some say the world will in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Poem #55: Haiku
Haiku
rosy beauty glows
tart and sweet waiting to wed
suddenly comes spring
Poem #56: Haiku
Broad green leaves fan out
sheltering their shoots below
tart pink stalks, the gift of Spring
Poem #57: Haiku
Grandmother rhubarb
Spreads ruby arms to hug clouds
While the worms cuddle dirt.
Poem #58: Haiku
Unexpectedly
in my favourite cold treat
rhubarb is so sweet
Poem #59: Haiku
Long red and green stalks;
The leaf is not what you eat.
First veggie of spring.
Poem #60: Freeform
Although your ice cream contains plants,
You may need to get bigger pants,
Because adding rhubarb
Doesn’t take out the carbs;
Instead you must get up and dance.
Poem #61: Freeform
Conversation
By Heather Blackmore
I’ll start some by seed
It will be a long time, could be years, ‘til harvest sure
Grandma had some, so did Mom
Check your front porch, I had to divide mine
I put it in yesterday, in the luxury of the middle of the day
Glad to share
The rhubarb is over by the fence
Grass never grows there anyway
They don’t want to be crowded
How long will it take, do you think?
Some grow it by candlelight to make it sweeter
We saw a bird that we’ve never seen before
Black, with tiger-tail wings
Watch Murphy around the leaves. Cats too
Orange peel in the garden, dogs don’t like citrus
Pull, don’t cut, leave a third
Sour pink celery
Joy says, Let it stand with sugar and wait.
Poem #62: Sonnet
Ode to a rhubarb
Oh sleekly sour stalks
of green-red-white,
Whose poisonous leaf
Hides bittersweet delight,
I wait with anxious yearning every year
For spring’s unfurled unfurling crisp reveal
I rue the day I felt your barb — and how —
But would not ever live without you now
😂😂😂😍😂😍😍😍😂
Poem #63: Freeform
He watered her rows as Rhubarista of Pleasure
He trafficked amounts of her body by moonlight as treasure
In defiance of rebar and the razors of law
He moved bundles unnoticed by mechanical claw
On the spine of horizons he followed the stars
The rhubarb was seasoned by shimmers of Saturn and Mars.
Poem #64: Haiku
Pink, unctuous, gleaming,
Sweet and tart, garden sweetheart,
Spring dream of ice cream.
Poem #65: Haiku
Caroline’s garden
Filled with rhubarb everywhere
Sour, sassy, red and green
Poem #66: Haiku
My brother’s new fence:
Rhubarb patch takes root, split from
My overgrown garden
Poem #67: Freeform
A lady of celery so sour and sweet
Her expanding sprouts spreading cracks in concrete
He named her Barbosa the goddess of pie
And her stalks in his garden soaked sun from the sky
In admiration of her he offered this speech
“No place is better than the place where I’m sipping
The sweet of Barbosa where my waist line is dipping.
Molten with strawberries in the crust of a pie
to the lobes of my brain and I crumble to cry.”
His melo-drama for pie was an opera at least
when the open containments were troubled by yeast.
He reached for a sentence through an insulin coma,
“If I’m blinded to blackness I’ll seek the aroma.”
Poem #68: Sonnet “Ode to rhubarb”
Oh sleekly sour stalks
of green-red-white,
Whose poisonous leaf
Hides bittersweet delight,
I wait with anxious yearning every year
For spring’s unfurled unfurling crisp reveal
I rue the day I felt your barb — and how —
But would not ever live without you now
😂😂😂😍😂😍😍😍😂
Poem #69: Haiku
rhubarb bitter sweet, delicious with strawberries, tastes great in crumble.
Poem #70: Haiku
Rhubarb ice cream yum
Merry Dairy has it now
Eat it all summer
By Evan Liew (8 1/2 yrs)
Poem #71: Freeform
Rhubarb, rhubard,
How I hate thee!
Rhubard, rhubard,
I much prefer ice cream you see..
Rhubard, rhubard,
Stalk, by stalk, you are to be uprooted…
Pull rhubard, tug rhubard,
Like the Klondike, you are ripe to be looted.
Oh rhubard, little rhubard,
Shush, be quiet, you’ll be fine, do trust me!
You’re on your way to Merry Dairy;
And that means more salted caramel for me!
The Quest
Bernie and Marlee went off on a frolic
In search of some ruby red stalks
They flittered and wandered
And helplessly floundered
Until they espied a hawk
They implored the hawk graciously
To please let them know
Where in this fine city
The ruby red grows
With his keen observation
He could see their vexation
At being mere mortals with limited vision
In this unusual pursuit of vegetation
His kindness prevailed
As he heard of their tale
of the need for rhubarb for the team
in the wink of an eye, he spotted a supply
so they could make their glorious ice cream
Poem #74: Freeform
Ode to Rhubarb (a limerick)
There once was a ‘Barb on my farm
Her stalks felt so nice in my arms
She turned a bright red
Was picked from her bed
And ended up in my mouth, sweet and warm.
Poem #75: Sonnet
The grass is still wet with dew
as I open the latch
to the garden patch
anticipating my breakfast stew
Your tartness is appreciated by few
but when I pick my morning batch
for me there is no match
reviving my fondness anew
If eaten raw
I blink my eyes
as my face frowns
But there is no flaw
to some’s surprise
when sugar helps it go down
Poem #76: Haiku
Oh, ruby stalks!
Under-appreciated; tart.
Rhubarb: heart of spring.
Poem #77: Sonnet
The Merry Dairy Rhubarb Fairy
Sonnet By Genova
I rued that barb, its capacious, mean leaves,
Its fleshy, tart trunks for pie or preserve.
My fears stemmed from stalks, albeit absurd;
At rhubarb’s raw forms, my taste buds would seize.
Though a base for wines or aperatifs,
Thoughts of the “pie plant” panicked my nerves.
For Rheum rhabarbarum I had no words;
Its beastly bite, my gustatory grief.
Then one day I, gladly rhubarb bereft,
Heard of rhubarb with ginger! Oh, that spice!
The Merry Dairy on air walked—so deft—
Cream couture clothed, sweet silk blended on ice!
Dairy dreams—and jams—that carry real heft!
Rhubarb Ginger Float Pie is the one I will slice!
Poem #78: Freeform
There was a man named Eddy
What wanted Rhubarb aplenty
So he put on his boots
And planted some roots
And said: Hurry up! Grow already!
There was a girl named Marlene
Who had a wonderful dream
Let’s open a shoppe
And trade in red stalks
And make some rhubarb ice cream
Poem #79: Freeform
Rhubarb
The colour of a ruby
The same colour as the feet of a red-footed boobie
With leaves of emerald green that do not like a scream!
Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb.
Poem #80: Haiku
Rhubarb is deep red
Ruby red good with sugar
Calm and attractive
Poem #81: Haiku
Shocking pink, stretching
Sullenly towards the sun
Unyielding giants
Poem #82: Haiku
What is this rhubarb
It has to do with Springtime
Maybe I’ll try it
Poem #83: Freeform
Oh Rhubarb,
I have a question.
Please don’t take it the wrong way.
Why don’t people like you?
I know some do but why not everyone?
You really have a lot going for you.
And you’re versatile too.
Maybe you’re just misunderstood.
You’re sour.
Like really sour.
And your poisonous greens,
That’s a tough one.
But did you hear?
Gardening is cool now.
Canning too.
That is good for you.
But Rhuby,
You need new recipes.
I’m sorry but stewed rhubarb isn’t ‘Gram worthy.
You gotta be a bit flashy.
And throw in a couple of zingers like “plant-based” and “gluten-free.”
And you gotta make friends with the foodies.
They’ve got smartphones and recipe blogs.
And they’re so done with quinoa and kale.
If that doesn’t work,
Have you thought of a re-brand?
A new name maybe?
How about Pink Celery?
Kinda catchy, I think.
RhuBarbie?
Maybe a bit much?
We’re just brainstorming here.
Oh Rhuby,
I have full confidence in you.
You’ll figure it out.
Poem #84: Haiku
Rhubarb Haiku
Red as a ruby
Slightly tart and slightly sweet
You will love rhubarb!
-Myles Jeffers
(9 years old)
Poem #85: Freeform
There once was a vegetable so sour,
that it made my brother-in-law dour.
If sweet rhubarb could be,
content would be he,
and all would live happily every after.
Poem #86: Haiku
Rhubarb, a haiku
Springtime unfurls leaves
Growing stringy stalks so tart
Smiling lips pucker
(Read in English & Estonian)
Poem #87: Haiku
Hot evening walk cold chocolate
strawberry rhubarb
merry dairy time again
