Watching Noodle-Making Videos on YouTube

By Robbi Nester

---

            “Ars longa, vita brevis” --Hippocrates


The noodle master Peter Song once said 
a chef must make 100 bowls of noodles 
a day, all by hand, to learn the craft, 
to knead the pyramid of flour and water 
from a pile of disparate dust till it 
comes together in a ball, until it shines, 
to stretch and pull it, twist it into a rope, 
an umbilicus pulsing with life. Only then 
can the chef bring it down hard 
onto the butcher block like a cat-of-nine-tails, 
whack it till it separates into strands, 
long fibers that weren’t there before. 
It doesn’t matter how many times 
I watch it, I can’t see how it’s done. 
He doesn’t estimate how many pounds 
of flour, how many hours and days 
I will need to stand over this table 
before the noodles finally unfold 
in my hand, spring to life in the roil 
of the steaming water, tender as clouds.

---

---

Robbi Nester is a retired college educator and author of four books of poetry (plus a few manuscripts currently making the rounds). She hosts two poetry reading series on Zoom per month. You can learn more about this and her work on her website: robbinester.net.

---

• Note: SWWIM Every Day is now accepting poetry translations for publication consideration. Please see swwim.org/submit for the full guidelines.

• Are you a SWWIMmer with literary news to share (publication/feature/award/book/book review)? We’d love to shout out your accomplishments in our Weekly Spotlight! Please email swwimmiami@gmail.com with a link to your news. (No DMs on any social media platforms, please.)

• Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and Bluesky for more updates—and visit our website to see past, present, and future readings & events.

---

**We do our best to preserve the integrity of each poem; however, due to programming limitations, some poems may read differently on a mobile phone and in certain browsers. For best viewing, use Chrome on a desktop/laptop.