Friday, June 04, 2010

Javanelle

How many cups of coffee does it take,
Scalding, black as night without a moon –
To write a poem before you are awake?

A rhyme distills, and then evaporates --
"The world is too much with us, late and soon" –
How many cups of coffee does it take?

I pour a second cup and concentrate,
No half-and-half this morn, no need for spoon,
But need to write this poem before you wake.

Skimmed thoughts inside my head, try to think straight…
While NPR goes in and out of tune:
How many cups of coffee does it take?

Another eight ounce mug of inspira-
tion later, and my muse is still immune…
How many cups of coffee does it take
To write a poem before you are awake?

3 comments:

Doug said...

I guess it would depend on how tired the sleeper was before sleeping, or in what way the sleeper was made to be tired.

I know that has nothing to do with coffee, but that's where your poem took me :-)

intelliwench said...

The sleeper, in this case, was intellikid. And, since she was usually good for sleeping in until well past noon on weekends back when I wrote this, it was actually more a case of how long it took the coffee to fire my creative sysnapses.

or something like that.

Doug said...

Well, however long it took, the coffee took hold, Intell. I like it.