Monday, December 15

 

The story goes that Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the famous poet, woke up one night ‘from a fevered dream’ with a poem fully formed in his head. It is suggested he might have taken opium. The poem was Kubla Khan and it has become one of the best known poems in the world.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure dome decree

Where Alph the sacred river ran

In caverns, measureless to man,

Down to a sunless sea.

 

I had a similar experience this morning, waking early with a poem rattling around in my head and I had nothing stronger than coffee before retiring. I had to get up to write it down before it disappeared.  In fact, one line (that’s 20% of the poem) had disappeared and may never be seen again.

There are some things I need to get at the shop

And some library books I need to swap

And I wish the voices in my head would stop

If there’s whisky in that bottle, I wouldn’t mind a drop.