Summer Café

David Britton a Mersea artist and poet whose book of poems, paintings and articles is on sale at the Artcafé, wrote this lovely poem from the café terrace the other day. The tartist and I were so taken with it we decided to share it here.



Summer Café

A wedge of town-leafiness
Shadows my chosen corner.
And I consider - coffee, and town-doings
And the work of wisdom that I've brought along
- in no particular order -
They circle around each other, nodding and bowing
Smiling, and giving way-
For none of them has natural precedence here
And all of them know
Their hour and season will come
Without a jousting or jostling.

I stir the voices from the street
Into my coffee.
And the lime leaves out there
Sweetened with air and light
These too go in.
And the roast coffee aroma
Is the first sentence
In my now opened book.

And I consider, that all the wisdom of philosophy
Might be for the sake
Of this, another morning of huge gratefulness
This light and equable noise
This aroma from a high place.

I find in my book
Some sentiments perhaps too harsh, too bitter.
Coffee and sunshine mellow them -
Coffee and sunshine the wise tutors
The completers of schooling, of being.

For perhaps one work of wisdom is done
When one can lean back and smile
In the good place-the café where one needs to be alone
But needs the others there to make that possible.

Such joy within our grasp can make us tremble.
And yes philosophy has done its work
When at the back of our most peaceful smile
A greater, then a greater smile, assemble.

David Britton ~ June 2009