The second cup of coffee is always sweeter
Poured into remnants of the first
Hot dark mixing with lighter cool
Stevia upon stevia
Half and half upon half and half
A tiny silver spoon swirling it all together.
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The first line of the poem has been stuck in my head for a week, the neurons taking it out of my mental filing cabinets each morning as I refreshed my coffee. I finally tried expanding on it in my morning writing.
Digging deeper, I see this as a metaphor for the second half of my life: experience building on experience, sweet gratitude for all that has come before and more good things to anticipate in the future. The tiny silver spoon was bought in Japan, where we traveled for our silver anniversary-- a reminder of the lovely coffee serving sets in the hotel featuring similar spoons.
A perfectly delicious metaphor, Chris, on many levels. I love coffee, and how you honored your neurons by writing this lovely line that played in your head. I am reminded of Robert Browning's opening lines to "Rabbi Ben Ezra," especially on youth only being half of life:
ReplyDeleteGrow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made...
That little silver spoon, so symbolic; stirring the sweetness.
It has been forever since I read that poem, Fran, and had forgotten the third line you quoted; only the first two tend to be repeated often. "The last of life, for which the first was made"...could there be a more perfect description of middle age and beyond? Even if troubled, the lessons from the first half help us navigate the path of the second. And yes, those silver spoons bring me much joy each morning!
DeleteI'm an over-sweetener of coffee too. Nearly everyone I know makes fun of the six Splendas I insert into my coffee. Therefore, I appreciate knowing that you're a kindred spirit by the way you take your coffee.
ReplyDeleteStacey, I am single-packet-per-mug user...but definitely add more to bistro coffees. I like mine sweet, too, and with plenty of creamer.
DeleteI'm interested in the metaphor you see in your poem - the building of experience upon experience, sweetness of the past and that yet to come. The silver spoon a gentle tool of mixture and confluence and the second cup of coffee as always sweeter... yes, these all point in so many interesting trajectories to what life holds beyond the parts we've already mastered.
ReplyDeleteThank you for pondering my interpretation as well as the poem! That final note of the spoon really speaks to this wonderful marriage which has blessed me for more than thirty years now--more than half of my life.
DeleteI drink my coffee black but prefer it on the edge of hot/luke warm. I love those first two lines! So evocative! And true!
ReplyDeleteThat first line just wouldn't let me go, Tim! Especially since it was reinforced every single morning during my ritual coffeemaking.
DeleteWhat a wonderful poem with each line offering more wisdom than the last. And the silver spoon is a fitting final line. The words and the spoon are beautiful
ReplyDeleteThank you! Finding joy and meaning in the ordinary may be one of the greatest blessings of the second half of life, I think.
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