Today is national espresso day and to celebrate it we want you all to write odes to coffee. We contemplated simply making the prompt coffee but thought we would go one step further. We want these written in a very similar way to haibun poetry. Don’t know haibuns or odes are? Don’t panic because we are about to explain.

An ode is simply a dedication in poetic form. Think of them as sort of love letters. And what if you don’t love coffee? Well you can do an ode to coffee appreciating its existence but write about something you prefer to it. For example, coffee I know you keep the nation from nodding off but you just don’t have the refreshing touch of peppermint tea… Be creative and don’t be afraid to be silly.

Haibun is its most basic definition is a block of prose followed by a haiku. The haiku serving as a conversational sidekick to the prose block. They can be placed at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of your piece and to remove any worries about doing them correctly, we will call them hellobuns. Don’t think too much about this just write some prose and a hellokoo to go with it. Below are some examples of haibun including a direct one for this prompt by Ash Raymond James. Have fun. See you in the comments.

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An ode to coffee by Ash Raymond James

The coffee woke the house like the kindest racket but ever so silent. Some notes of scent are louder than those notes of sound. The coffee exhales and becomes everything. It latches onto the cupboards and the countertops. It sneaks itself into the living room and discovers the secret entrances below closed doors. It is an exploding whisper. It even pours smooth. It is the least annoying hype person you could ever want, it says hey! I am here for you, let’s get to that finish line! Let’s seize this day. Let’s take over the world but patiently like one hour at a time.

Black collides with white.

The sugar dissolves slowly.

Suddenly, awake.