This month, I decided to participate in the Poem-A-Day challenge. I’ve been writing a lot of poetry over on my Patreon (now closed), and I’ve really been enjoying it. It’s such a different muscle to work and flex than novel writing (or blogging), and I hope to keep building and improving my skills in that arena. So, what better way than to make sure I write 30 poems* in April?
*technically, it’s 34, because I will write four unique poems just for my Patrons. But you’ll get 30 poems here on this blog!
There are daily prompts on the Writer’s Digest website. Some days I’ll use the prompts; some days I might not. Today, I decided to use the prompt, which was to write a “morning poem.” I decided to go free-form with this one. Other days, I might be more structured (I’m still having a love/hate relationship with sonnets right now…), but I also might not. This is just for me, and for fun.
Okay. Now that you have the context, most days, I’ll just be posting the poems themselves. I’ll try to remember to link back to this post in case you stumble upon this challenge on day three or six or twelve or twenty four and want to know what the heck is happening. And I do plan on writing other blog posts during the month of April, so if you follow this blog (hello and thank you!), you might get a couple of notifications from me on some days. Just a heads up!
Without further ado, here’s today’s poem:
Before the Break
Beeping, tones, or music —
There is no set alarm that can truly prepare
Anyone
For an hour this early
And yet, it is now, I rise.
No warm glow above the horizon
Nor birds chirping me awake
Greet me in the morning.
Instead, I am met with the sound
Of a vacuum cleaner
And weights being removed
From a sturdy metal rack
In the corner of the living room
Set between a soft gray couch
And a keyboard with no power cord.
I could stay here
Snuggled between ivory sheets
With my head resting
On an ergonomic memory foam neck pillow.
But he is waiting for me.
The day is waiting for me.
We begin like this
Because challenges of strength
And pools of sweat
Cause endorphins to flood our brains
And our bodies,
Making us feel more awake, more alive, more capable
Of taking on whatever the day is going to bring.
Besides
It’s nice to be together
Even though we don’t talk
Or really look in one another’s direction
But we’re here, at the same time.
Even though more than once
Or twice
Or three times
My brain will drift back
To those soft, wrinkled, tired ivory sheets
And the indentations my body made within them,
I know that this is better.
To be up before the break of day.
To be up to see the sunrise.
And then, with blood pumping
It’s in to the hustle
Of lunches being packed
And protein shakes blended
And coffee brewed
And showers and clothes
With a social media check in between.
There is a transition
To the full flow of the day
With work and commute and meetings and
Responsibility
All waiting for their turn.
This all begins to happen
As the sun starts to peek
Over the mountains in the distance
Making sure we’ve completed
Our quiet pre-break ritual
Before flooding our day
With light and expectation.
This is my life as a morning person.
This is how I begin my day.
Colette Marie Murphy 