Poem-A-Day: Time Study by Marvin Bell

Time Study by Marvin Bell     The coffee was cold so I said so. I said,  my coffee is cold, and then I repeated it  but with a variation, something like, my  coffee is cold and I said so, and then, I  said I am glad my coffee is cold because  I get to say so, and I said my coffee is cold  like the Sahara at night, and I said the Sahara  is a lot like my coffee, which has cream,  and it is cold which means I have to say so  or someone will say to drink my coffee,  which is cold and the camels are asleep.    Let's try it again, I said, taking a sip of coffee,  and then not taking a sip but still holding  the cup and I said look at the cup and see  if you can see the Sahara and then I said,  it was in there a moment ago but I took a sip  and it is inside me I suppose, and I said then  the same thing, my coffee is cold, and also,  this coffee is cold to make sure they knew  which coffee, not coffee as coffee but coffee  as a part of the whole and also immediate  in some sense, like waking in the desert.    I write a lot about coffee, I said, and I said,  I just need to see who my friends are, the ones  who will stay till the end, and I added, I do not  take death as a personal insult, and I said it was  good to repeat things but not ideas, and I said  it was not good to repeat ideas, and I said also  it was good to repeat things, and I said my coffee  is cold and I can say so and I said when I say  my coffee is cold it is part of something bigger  that can last as long as I say it is, still is, and then  I said my coffee is still cold at this time, still is.        Copyright © 2013 by Marvin Bell. Used with permission of the author.   About This Poem "I'm partial to coffee shops, brain work, and poems on the page. I write after midnight. Sometimes, twisty syntax happens, and I surrender."   --Marvin Bell Most Recent Book by Bell Vertigo: The Living Dead Man Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2011)   September 9, 2013 Marvin Bell is the author of numerous collections of poetry; his most recent is Vertigo: The Living Dead Man Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2011). From 2000 to 2004, he served as the first poet laureate of Iowa. Bell divides his time between Iowa City, Iowa, and Port Townsend, Washington. Related Poems All She Wrote by Harryette Mullen Anybody Can Write a Poem by Bradley Paul Yes by Denise Duhamel Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the  Poem-A-Day Archive.         Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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