Pressing Pause for Poetry: Thrower Starr (once more!)

As I've mentioned before, my favorite poet around is my father, Thrower Starr. Although I have already shared one of his poems recently, I couldn't help but include just one more of his poems that I absolutely LOVE. It's about coffee, and since I have already written about my coffee addiction experience, I thought it would be appropriate to share this poem, as well. 

I can't imagine anything written that explains/describes the caffeine rush provided by coffee as eloquently and expertly as this poem does. It's amazing! So take a moment to pause and enjoy...


COFFEE

Keep it black
or cut it with the milk of a mother
until it’s the color of your palm.
Swallow it down
and soon the whole tree of your nervous system
is lit up like Christmas
colored lights up and down
and blinking, too--blinking!

---

And the birds on its branches sing
mightily all at once--
mockingbirds, bluejays, rufous-sided towhees,
and even crows laughing their obscene laugh.
The songs, the lights, the noise,
it is a parade,
it is New Year’s Eve in Times Square,
it is an absurdly abundant all-at-once spring morning.

What can’t you do?
Nothing.
No idea is too heavy for you to master and twirl.
Your mind prances like a drum major
in the eyes of the world.
Your words flare from the burning
bush of your intelligence
as you carve them on the tablets before you.
If the chair you’re sitting in doesn’t watch it
you just might trample it with the hooves of your mind.

Too much, though, for too long
and the bills must be paid.
The birds with scorched feet drop
from the hot branches, one by one,
their throats stung by song,
beaks chipped from rapid clatter.
The tree itself is blackened,
sapped, zapped.

Party over.
Crumpled paper, a plastic
golden horn, a deflated colored ball
are all that’s left.
Gravity returns.
The brown-out in the big city
is punctuated only by the rain
of the last sizzled birds hitting
the ground with a thump. 


Unbelievable, right? I know. Have a wonderful day! And don't forget to stop and enjoy the moment...

Namaste,
Mary Catherine

Image via conexionamericas.org