The Honeymoon

THIRD PLACE

Indian Kukai #14/COFFEE

honeymoon -

only morning coffee

without sugar

Capotă Daniela Lăcrămioara

The poem’s most important quality is its discretion. The author communicates just a state of things and, by the way in which she discloses it, an attitude towards it – a restraining, distant, unapproachable one. The way in which the two elements in the composition are presented – the honeymoon and the morning coffee – is a white one, apparently neutral, devoid of poetic ornaments and rhetorical garments. Nothing to attract attention or influence the unsophisticated reception of the two objects.

Apparently, because there are words that insinuate something more, that slip in some allusions. The coffee without sugar can be a harmless personal(ized) preference, a kind of habit of the customer’s choice, but in tandem with the honey (moon), and tuned by the restrictive preposition only, suggests that, in the given situation (honeymoon), the sweetness is anyway still plentiful and would not need anything else.

However, the allusions do not stop here. If it's all about the morning coffee, then we can accept that the moon, yellow as honey, is still in the sky and we can sip, in equal servings, the coffee and its unforgettable charm. Perhaps this charm is related to that of an old time honeymoon. Even if we forgot to put sugar in our coffee, it does not matter, if there are sufficient compensations today. And we might, even though we do not have diabetes, give up sugar (why not coffee as well?) just for the honey in the honeymoon.

A genuine haiku text communicates the important things not literally, but by the allusive slippage of a few words and some details in the stituation presented. It is possible to have here an encoded parable: when the moon is made of honey, avoid anything sugarcoated.

(Corneliu Traian Atanasiu)