For the Love of Coffee

If you love coffee, love its earthy, rich smell and its smooth, nutty undertone, then you’re in the right place.

Coffee and poetry – thoughts on #PayWithAPoem day

Pay With A Poem Day - image courtesy Julius Meinl
Pay With A Poem Day – image courtesy Julius Meinl

I’m thinking to move to Croatia. Or at least be there together with my husband on the 21st of March, World Poetry Day.

For a third year in a row in 2016, over 250 cafes around Croatia gave FREE coffee in exchange for a… poem!

20 other countries around the world also supported World Poetry Day, so if not Croatia, then maybe we’ll fly to Italy, Austria or Turkey!

I love coffee.

And I love writing poetry. Sometimes rhymes just spill out of the tips of my fingers like a bottomless mug of caffeine. What more could a girl wish for?

If poetry is not your cuppa, then a thought, a phrase or a song can also be used as payment for a cup of hot, steaming, strong Julius Meinl coffee. Imagine, for a day only, money are replaced with a far more substantial currency and a lot less volatile one: emotions.

I think I’ll send Robert Montgomery a bag of coffee for Christmas to thank him for this initiative, #PayWithAPoem day!

What Coffee is to Poetry

Coffee was made to feel,

Hot, steamy like a heart

Pulsating into my cup.

Nurturing me,

Giving me life

Day in and day out.

Poetry is the tree of life,

Words covering the nakedness of my trunk.

Cover my heart,

Fuel my emotions.

Coffee and poetry

For eternity.

(by Patricia Furstenberg)

#PayWithAPoem day around the world

London

A visual image for #PayWithAPoem day is The PoeTree. A red à la Julius Meinl tree trunk clothed with poems written all over the world on this day and planted right in the heart of business London by Meinl ambassador Robert Montgomery.

The PoeTree grows straight from the pavement on Finsbury Avenue Square, in the City of London.

“We need poetry as much as we need nature. We need it to repopulate the places devoid of emotion with our dreams and our imagination. Poems can change our days for the better. They did it on March 21st. They are doing it now, once again.” (Robert Montgomery)

Milan

A bridge over Navigli River was draped in poems and thoughts written by Julius Meinl coffee lovers. Imagine strolling under the Italian sun, taking in the sights and sounds of history, your heartbeat slowing down. The fresh aroma of coffee is teasing your nostrils when a gush of wind makes the bridge hum, a low hum of paper being tosses and turned like the pages of an open book, spread out, invitingly waiting for you. Go ahead, read it, it’s ok, it is La Dolce Vita.

Pay With Coffee Day - A bridge in Mlan. Imge courtesy Julius Meinl
Pay With Coffee Day – A bridge in Mlan. Imge courtesy Julius Meinl

Vienna, Shanghai, Chicago, Hamburg, Dubai, Moscow or Istanbul

Poems jotted on bits of paper are displayed in Meinl coffee shops, printed in glossy coffee books or published online. For everyone to read and enjoy and draw inspiration for writing their own – to pay with, on #PayWithAPoem day.

Because POETRY is for EVERYONE.

It is as much mine and yours as it is Shelly’s or Frost’s. POETRY is not a past tense, poetry is NOW, contemporary and ALIVE. DIGITAL. CYBER.

“I love how Pay With A Poem provides a little pocket of freedom, where money is replaced by poetry. Instead of using a banknote or a credit card people can transfer value to poetry, and use it as an alternative form of payment.” (Robert Montgomery)

#PoetryForChange

#PayWithAPoem

A Love Letter to Coffee

My beloved, it has only been moments since I’ve left you and… I already miss you!

I will not shy away from my feelings for you! You are my one, true joy in the early hours of the morning. No matter how restless my night has been or how busy my daily schedule is, sharing those special moments with you in the morning, holding you, revelling in your scent and your full body… Oh, nothing can take away the simple pleasure of our time together.

How sweet and understanding you are of my living you behind each morning. You do know that there is no one else for me, but you. I always return to you.

You are so unique, yet your flamboyant personality has me under a spell, I can never get bored with you. 

How does it end? Read it here (in a guest post for Portobello Book Blog)