The coffee is cool; oh, there was a story.
You just missed it, wrapped in fire,
smelling like espresso and ash.
Christmas ghosts and patrons alike
haunted our table, smoke-thin,
where it was sitting, sipping.
I'd offer you a new cup, full and hot,
but...you'd have to tell it cold.
Maybe your skin is...?
But no, I see that you're as chill
as I; masked as I. Ah well.
Stories burn nearby.
For The Sunday Muse. This week I wanted to talk about stories and the way that flicker down to embers at this time of year. I've been thinking about all the drafts that remain layered in notebooks and the way that this year ends in that indefinite space, with unread books surrounding me in a fort built of blankets, a chaise lounge, chairs, and bookshelves. Part of the weirdness of this year has been building spaces all around the house that are nooks for reading and writing and then...neither reading nor writing anything from beginning to end.
Next year (next week, just over the horizon), I'm thinking about writing to the family I've been mostly unable to see this year. Finishing novels just for them. Next year, I'd like to celebrate a spin on the Icelandic tradition of books for Christmas by giving several of them those books, written to them, for them. An impossible goal for improbable times, yes?
-- Chrissa
Not an inpossible goal. Go for it!! Say the things that need to be said while there's time for the saying!
ReplyDeleteI really like the poem - and yes, let us write what needs to be written while we can.
ReplyDeleteLove the mix of both warmth and cold in your poem. It has been that kind of year for sure. Your future plans are totally going to happen and your family and all of us will love it! Wishing you a wonderful and blessed 2021 my friend!
ReplyDeleteThis was so moving Chrissa — just excellent! Well written...
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!!!!
ReplyDeleteI spent much of yesterday writing ... nothing definitive, sentences and lines that popped into my mind which I will later build on .. poems for 2021. Thanks for everything you do to make The Sunday Muse such a delight. Cheers.
The first that first stanza, what it says, the scents (even the seemingly unpleasant ones). I like that in the end, there is hope for new things, or old things revived and completed. And I love the idea of writing for us we have missed most.
ReplyDeleteWarmth, coolness, and unfinished stories. Just perfect, Chrissa!
ReplyDeleteWell, Chrissa, "Facetime" and "Zoom" get family closer. Mrs. Jim does that with our 11-year-old granddaugher. I've played hide and seek with Zoom, the young one gets upset if I hide in an imaginary place mainly because I wouldn't fit in the places that I choose.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the prompt photo, at first it seemed void of excitement and encouragement but it turned out to be a goodie.
.. .