Tuesday's Tip: Early Morning Writing Necessities

A cup of coffee
brewed fresh after the long night
and sipped while waiting for dawn

I go into the kitchen to pour myself my fresh cup of coffee for the day. I open the blinds and look out into the partly cloudy morning. I pour coffee into my favorite unwashed cup and then go to the front door. I stand at my front door looking into my neighborhood and listening to the noises of people and animals waking up.

I sip my coffee
contemplate the beauty of dawn
give thanks for another day

In order to meet today's writing goal, I have to begin my day early. Sometimes I begin at 1:00 or 2:00 am. Sometimes I overs sleep until 6:30 or 7:00 am. Sometimes I write for a hour or so after I wake up and then I go back to sleep. Sometimes I write before my first cup of coffee, but most of the time I write while sipping my coffee. I'm not fully awake until I've drink at least one cup of strong black coffee.

Coffee ambrosia
wakes up my mind and my muse
precious gift of God

Fragment Friday: Before my first cup of Coffee

Before my first cup of coffee
thought fragments
flash though my mind;
unfocused ideas
waiting for me to write
them in black ink
on a white page.

I check the clock
has an hour passed
since I took the thyroid medication?

No!

I sigh,
I go to the coffee maker,
and prepare to brew coffee
knowing that
by the time it is finished
I can have a hot cup.

Writing with Coffee

This morning, I have a cup of hot black coffee sitting on a wooden television stand beside my computer desk. I keep a T.V. stand beside the desk because I don't dare sit coffee on the same desk as the computer. This way, if I accidentally spill coffee or any other beverage I happen to be drinking while I'm working it isn't spill on the computer.

A hot cup of coffee
awakens my muse
and encourages
my winter cold fingers
to type.

It's easier to think while I'm sipping coffee because it allows me a few minutes to contemplate what I'm going to write next. I can take a sip of the hot dark ambrosia and stare at the screen while I savor the smooth flavor of the coffee. After I place my cup back on t he stand and swallow the coffee then I can get right back to typing with any difficulties.

Writing with coffee;
 feeling the hot liquid
warming my mouth
and flowing down my throat...
Life is good!

Iced Coffee: A Poem

Iced coffee
a new summer sensation,
at least for me.

Is it age
living in Las Vegas,
the triple digit temperatures,
or keeping the thermostat set
at 83 degrees?

Whatever it is
hot coffee is too much warmth
on a summer day.

Iced Coffee in Triple Digit Temperatures

Triple digit temperatures
Requires me to drink cold liquids
To cool down

It is summer and my morning pick me up has changed from a hot cup of coffee to a cold glass of iced coffee. I prefer to drink anything with ice in a glass rather then a plastic or cardboard cup. If I go to a fast food place of a specialty coffee shop, I will drink my coffee or other cold liquid out of the container they put it in; however, at home I want my iced liquids in a glass.

I felt warm this morning, so I decided it was time I changed from hot coffee to iced coffee. When I make iced coffee at home, I use coffee ice cubes because the water ice cubes dilute the strength of the coffee. I, like my Grandpa Newland, prefer strong coffee. I have drink strong coffee all my life and I do not intend to change simply because summer temperatures force me to change from hot coffee to iced coffee.

I normally drink my coffee black, except when I go to a specialty coffee house. When I purchase a tall container of iced or hot coffee there, I usually purchase café mocha because I like the taste of chocolate combined with the taste of the caffeine.

Triple digit temperatures
Encourages me
To make my morning coffee iced

Cold Coffee on Friday Afternoon

While I was taking my afternoon nap
my coffee got cold,
not ice cold,
but room temperature cold.

Drinking cold coffee
on this late Friday afternoon
reminded me
of a chilly spring morning
or fall day.

Ice coffee
is a pleasant experience
on tripe digit summer days,
but cold coffee
without chocolate,
milk,
or ice
is a completely different
experience.

It isn't
an unpleasant experience
and it isn't a pleasant
either,
it's just odd,
perhaps a little
weird
and unusual for me,
but I needed a a subject
for this poem.

Poetry form of the week: Cameo a 7-line unrhymed poem

Coffee

On a cold morning

Warming the cockles of my soul

Wakes me up

My Grandfather’s favorite brand

A rich Columbian blend

Tasty

A Cameo is an unrhymed 7-line poem, with a syllable structure of 2, 5, 8, 3, 8, 7, 2.

For another example of this form, see Cameo Turtles by Nancy Lee Shrader.

Hot coffee on an autumn morning

A hot cup of joe
Wakes me up and starts my day
Dawn transforms the sky

I opened a fresh can of coffee this morning. A rich dark blend that got my day started at dawn.

The aroma of fresh ground coffee in the morning

Morning rich perfume
Ground bean by bean before dawn
Wakes the desert up

I run out of regular ground coffee on Sunday, so I had to open the 12 oz. bag of whole bean coffee. I ground enough to make two percolators of coffee again today. After Mom and I empty the first 12-cup percolator I'll make more coffee. I enjoy the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans and the taste of the coffee.

On the first day of the week

On the first day of the week,
with morning temperatures in the mid 40s
a high pressure area rule Vegas.

On the first day of the week,
tourist and locals alike
look forward to afternoons in the 60s
and give thanks for blue skies
on a lazy Sunday.

On the first day of the week,
no one wants to thinks
about Monday morning traffic
or the predictions of hump day clouds.

On the first day of the week,
locals relax over coffee and the morning paper
or attend spiritual services
at the church down the street
while tourist
still sleepy from last nights show
make their way to hotel-casino coffee shops
for breakfast and coffee.

Coffee and Haiku

A coffee morning
seventeen syllables sipped
from a small white cup.

Coffee makes a good subject for haiku. I am drinking French roast coffee now because that was the type I bought the last time I went to the store. I buy coffee according to the blend or the roast rather then the brand.

Saturday Morning in Las Vegas

The rich aroma
of morning wafts through the house
French roast coffee perks.

French roast coffee smells better then regular coffee. This morning when I made it in the percolator smelled the aroma as the coffee begin to perk. The perfume of coffee scents the air.

Black coffee in a
white cup consumed sip by sip
a good Saturday.

My Saturday has started good. I have a small white cup of hot coffee setting on a wooden coffee table. I pause in my writing every few seconds to take a sip of black French roast coffee.

Coffee on Friday morning

I pour leftover coffee into the percolator. Watch the little window to make sure I don't overfill the pot. Place the empty basket inside then put on the lid. Plug in the cord. I stand listening to the perk, smile. I inhale the aroma as I return to the living room.

black gold warmed over

the percolator glistens

a new day begins

I wrote my first Personal-Ku yesterday

A Personal-Ku is a form of poetry. It is a variation of a Haiku and AmeriKu (I am going to have to research this form). To write a Personal-Ku, you take the syllables of your first, middle and last names, which become the syllable count of the poem's lines. My information for the form comes from a writing.com poetry contest called Personal-Ku. The Personal-Ku can have one or more stanzas.

My first, middle, and last name all have two syllables in them. This gives my Personal-Ku a total syllable count of six, with two syllables for each line. The poem I wrote yesterday had to do with my dentures and shrinking gums. I am going to write a new poem for this entry.

Hot black
Coffee
Heaven.

Note to Poets: If you are not sure about the syllable count of a word look it up in a dictionary or go to Dictionary.com to check the number of syllables.

Hot Coffee on a Chilly Autumn Morning

On chilly autumn mornings
when temperatures drop
into the forties or fifties
I want a hot cup of joe
to warm me from the inside out.

On chilly autumn mornings
I make a fresh pot of coffee
and then make a cup of cafe mocha
by putting hot chocolate mix
in my cup and then pouring
in the hot coffee,
stirring all the time.

On chilly autumn mornings
hot cafe mocha hits the spot
and warms me up for the day.