FIRST FRIDAY POETRY FEBRUARY 2024

Last year, I joined Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler in a "year long poetry practice – on the first Friday of each Month," when they, and anyone else who joined, wrote a poem based on the theme of the month and a photo taken relating to that theme.

I've decided to join them again this year, even though there is no theme. 

I was given a Mary Oliver collection for Christmas. Reading her work has reminded me to make time to appreciate the world around me and rejoice in the pleasures of nature and ordinary things. Perhaps as I age, I was already on my way to this, but her work certainly reinforces it.

So while there is no theme for this year, I'm thinking I'm going to write about the magic of ordinary life. Today it's about coffee. I didn't expect either of my photographers to have an image of this, so i tried to capture the process myself. I should probably have whittled the poem down more, but I ran out of time.

alchemy

have you ever,
i mean ever,
really paid attention to brewing coffee?

i concede
there are many methods
for making delicious
brews of this black elixir

but none of them compare
to the intimate ritual of
a pourover pot of coffee

i grind beans the night before,
some people think it’s a travesty, but
who wants that racket first thing?

on occasion,
when i have to get up early,
i set everything up before going to bed
(purists insist that grind and water should be fresh)

the truly important bit begins
once the kettle whistles,

now,

pay 

close 

attention

as you pour the boiling water
to barely wet the grounds
observe how it blooms 

into foam and large bubbles
as the carbon dioxide escapes

pour more water,
watch as it steeps
over,
around,
and into the ground beans

note the creation of caverns and crevices
see how they
crash and collapse
as the celestial liquid flows,
now transformed,
into the pot

it’s not over yet
it’s barely begun

peer closely
at the multitude of
tiny bubbles
glistening,
shimmering,
dancing brown jewels
refracting rainbows
of light

pour more water
watch it all again

as you conjure up 

ordinary morning magic