Caro’s Writing Perspectives

Caro’s Writing Perspectives

NaPoWriMo

Ode to a Coffee Mug

That mug deserves recognition

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Caro Henry
Apr 09, 2024
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Photo by Alexander Jawfox on Unsplash

This poem is part of the NaPoWriMo 2024 challenge to write a poem a day in April. This is the prompt for April 9.

Our prompt for today (optional, as always) takes its inspiration from Pablo Neruda, the Chilean-born poet and Nobel Prize Winner. While he is most famous in the English-speaking world for his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, he also wrote more than two hundred odes, and had a penchant for writing sometimes-long poems of appreciation for very common or mundane things. You can read English translations of “Ode to the Dictionary” at the bottom of this page, “Ode to My Socks” here, and “Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market” here.

Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own ode celebrating an everyday object.

Coffee mug, 
my trusted friend,
with each embrace 
my senses 
ignite.
You mend my 
weary spirit,
with daily ritual.

Your sturdy handle 
oh so strong,
curves and lines, 
the potter’s skill,
you hold the elixir that …

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