"Sanity..." Part of "The Cafe` - Life As We Live It" Poetry

A piece of an interrupted Chapbook

A couple of years back I envisioned and began to put together a series of works.  They were to be placed in a 'chapbook' titled - "The Cafe` - Life As We Live It."  All of it's snippets were to be life-themed and revolved around going to a downtown cafe and being part of 'life' as I found it.  Things don't always go as 'planned'.

"The Cafe` - Life As We Live It"

”Sanity…”

We have our moments
our perceptions
of our realities…
minute by minute.


I looked up from the page.  “What is it about “Sanity…” you don’t understand Dave?” I asked as I set my mug down.

I sat still, listening.  “Well, you have a point.”  “But, man… that IS the same point I’m trying to MAKE!”  “Ok…ok, I get your drift… clarity… it IS how we ‘see’ things I guess.”  “So what IS ‘reality’ Dave?”

I listened, thought, and waited a bit.  “But the concept?” or perhaps, “It’s finality?” - a quizzical look.

Nothing still… I leaned toward him, “Well, I felt it was ‘relevant’, I mean damn, Dave… it always depends on perceptions doesn’t it???”

I reached for my mug… damn, barely any dregs… “Mary?”  I looked around.  She was over by an empty table, wiping it down.  “Mary, we need some more coffee please.”

She looked up, paused and then said,  “Just be a sec hon” softly.

She came up… filled my cup. I motioned toward Dave’s.

She looked a sec, reached and took his, set it on her tray, and placed a fresh mug on the table.  Then she smiled, turned and walked away.  I lifted mine…ahhh great coffee here.

”Excuse me, sir?”  I looked up.  “Sir, do you mind if I take that chair?”

"Wha... Pardon me?"  The shadows perceptibly changed, my focus just - sharpened.  The kid might have been eighteen, on a good day.

"The empty chair... We need another chair for our table.”  I looked him in the eyes, “Nah, it’s cool… its ok " go ahead…” and he did… and Dave faded back into my memories.

I twisted the pen's top and put it in my shirt pocket - then looked down at my open journal ~ Dave never gets older, after all these years - he's just always... Dave.

”Sanity…”

We have our moments
our perceptions
of our realities…
minute by minute.

At times mine may intersect
with yours

and yours with mine

and sometimes they don’t.

Chris

Author's Note

Say as you want - feel free.

Reviews

[Ruth]

Even perception is unique to each, reality spins but do we ever grasp the outer circle in which it spins as clarity becomes a blur and the hoop keeps spinning and spinning - sigh, so many thoughts enter my own perception on sanity and reality and the in-betweens when I read you but barely do I reach the surface even in explaining the thoughts I have....such depth to this that in all honesty, I sit here and have read it three times and still cant voice what I have in my mind for it is not words but a feeling ...I sometimes feel we are conditioned by said reality and call it life when life's meaning is seldom touched upon by many of us, really...we cling on to a vision of what we think it is, not what it tells us it is...perhaps xx

[Nestor Gonzalez]

sanity is insane your know,i don't that's why i'm saying that,
this was an intresting read the more i indulge in your work the more i see how far you can drift from one work to another it's very intresting,sanity,what is sanity? a question so many of us never really ask we think sanity is what we see but if we were blind then what would the answer be?,i like this read thought it's provokes thoughts :]

[Ken Simm.]

Ah a Harvey alive, ( really alive) part of your multiverse, and answering to the great unknowns. Reality is what you write all the time you are reading it.

[Chris]

Jimmy Stewart DID it so WELL!!

[Ken Simm.]

Wa'llll ah yeah.

[Chris]

See what happens when you party with some Brit Marines in Istanbul and you thunk your head on the metal deck of their shore boat as they take you back to spend the night on their ship?

[Ken Simm.]

Remind me to tell you what happens when you go into a Cafe in Incline Nevada and ask for a coffee and ham and cheese sandwich and they ask you for your British driving license.

[Chris]

Chuckling here...we BOTH got out alive - is all that matters in the long run...

[olla]

I have thought a lot about realities in the last few days.. I am still not sure that there may have been some discrepancies that belonged on my doorstep.. I like the concept of "The Cafe - Life as We Live It" and I like the way you began it.. I hope someday you decide to resurrect it

[olla]

sometimes it feels like I am stuck in a bumper car..

[Shelley Holt-Lowrey]

OK Chris. Had to read this thrice before it stuck - deeply. That said, I have no words. You rendered the babbler speechless.
Beautiful!

[.....]

Yes, I really like this. I think we each have our moments of clarity in the in-sanity moments that may appear outside the norm to others. That little conversation between poetic intermissions was where the real story was.

Blessings, Tammy

[Southern Cross]

Don't we all have conversations with ourselves or others that really aren't there?. Choosing a moment from the past, making them the present .sometimes make for great revelations, conclusions, debates. Does this classify as INSANITY? Or better yet, CREATIVITY.

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Right from the beginning, I felt that you were talking to yourself! Halfway through, I had to go back and read it again, when I realized you were in fact speaking to Dave. Then Dave fades back into memory. So tell me, Chris, was Dave ever real? Or maybe your inner muse?

[roarke]

nice, very nice. Another cup for me too. black.