Jan-Henry Gray
Three Poems from Table Poems
Notes
Most of the poems in my new book, Table Poems, refer to a form I invented for myself in the summer of 2020 when I was looking (more like clawing) for ways to get words on the page in the hopes that those words would become poems—something akin to putting delicious ingredients in a shopping cart with no plan for dinner. Like Wordle, Sudoku, or a crossword, much of the satisfaction of writing a table poem derives from seeing empty spaces get filled. If revision is endless, this invented form offers a way to at least finish, if not "solve," a poem in process.
To make:
First, create a grid (or table) of 3 columns and 14 rows. Three because it's a reliable compositional number and fourteen because of the sonnet. Begin by filling the bottom row with three words or phrases; these need not make sense together.
Next, fill the boxes (starting from the top to the bottom) in a cascading (or staircase) pattern with words or phrases that "respond" to those in the bottom row, starting with the last box.
For example: respond to the last box in the third column last row by writing something in the first box (first column, first row), then in the second column of the second row; then the third column of the third row; then the first column in the fourth row, etc. Once you reach the bottom, repeat this pattern by responding to the second box in the last row.
Or, in the example below, respond to the phrase "that start a poem" in the yellow squares (1-13). Then to "naked in the dusk" in the blue squares and "names" in the gray squares.
Once filled, remove the grid, and use commas to separate the word(s) from their neighboring word(s). What remains should be a mass of words. A wall of sound. A collage of images.
Revise, rearrange, add, delete. Like at the end of most recipes, "season to taste" and ignore the original order or logic of the process. Reshape the poem into a rectangular table-like blocks, or lineate, as you wish. Titles come later, if not last.
I was a professional chef for twelve years and I still cook most days. Food is always on my mind, often on my hands. These table poems attempt to borrow the joys of the cooking process to assuage the pains of the writing process. I gather ingredients, play with composition, adjust for balance, rely on taste, and allow for time, play, and chance to do their work.
Draft of a Table Poem
Jan-Henry Gray is the author of Documents, selected by D.A. Powell as the winner of BOA Editions’s Poulin Poetry Prize, and the chapbook Selected Emails. His poems have been included in various anthologies, including Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora (HarperCollins, 2024), Permanent Record: Poetics Towards the Archive (Nightboat, 2025), Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry, Queer Nature, and Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color. He has received fellowships from Undocupoets, the Cooke Foundation, and Kundiman. Born in the Philippines and raised in California, he worked as a chef for over twelve years. He is an assistant professor at Adelphi University in New York and teaches in their low-residency MFA program.