A Lunch Poetic At The Poetry Café
It’s always nice when you find a place in London that feels like a lesser-known, hidden gem; somewhere a bit special, maybe a little off the beaten track, but only by a street or two. Somewhere you could take someone and feel a little bit proud you introduced it to their life, or somewhere you could keep to yourself as your own secret happy place. Well, I’d love to share my one such find with you Belles.
I hereby introduce you to and urge you to visit The Poetry Café. Here’s a place on the outskirts of Covent Garden that’s just a little bit different. It serves delicious, healthy, vegetarian food, Fair-trade coffees and loose leaf tea, but, wait for it, it also serves you poetry (You saw that coming didn’t you?). There’s poetry you can listen to, read or write yourself. I suspect at least some of you may be saying to yourself right now, “Well, Jackie, I’m not really into poetry, but thanks anyway.” Well, before you go, I would urge you to just consider being my “yes” friend or at least bearing with me for a couple more paragraphs.
My own relationship with poetry is such that I can compose what I personally and probably misguidedly see as a mean set of rhyming couplets. I find the haiku quite a fun proposition. I’ve always liked Pam Ayres and I wrote a pretty awesome essay on Sylvia Plath when I was at school (B+ don’t you know!). I don’t wear a beret, but I haven’t ruled it out and I don’t even know if poets wear berets, it just feels sort of right. So I guess that doesn’t make me a laureate contender but it puts me in the room.
And poetry is good for you.
An article I recently read claims poetry improves verbal skills and memory, critical thinking, develops empathy and insight and encourages engagement with other art forms. Winning on all counts! (Read that article in full here)
Anyway, each table in The Poetry Café has a little notebook on the table for guests to write something themselves. There are no rules, no expectations and it can be as anonymous as you like. Ok, you may not immediately feel compelled to do this, but I bet you a happy haiku you’ll love reading what went before.
In the book on my table was a hilarious timed documentation of someone being stood up, something written so beautifully and neatly in Chinese and a lot of deeply personal musings on the meaning of life from strangers. My personal favourite was someone who had written a love letter in the form of alternative lyrics to The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News. It was cute and funny, but also possibly the sweetest, most heartfelt thing I’d ever read. And the great thing is, you get to imagine your own story around these entries. Was the person for whom this was written with the author when it was written? Would they ever see it? Did the author want them to see it? I hope so, it was clearly true love.
Beyond the prose, I had a delicious bean stew with couscous in a portion size just right to allow a following of chocolate cake. I left nourished in so many ways.
A café that twists
Of souls exposed raw, that’s
The power of love
* The Poetry Café can be found on Betterton St, W1 and is open Monday to Saturday 11am till late. Every evening there are events – for example, readings, book launches, live music. See the website for details: poetrysociety.org.uk/poetry-cafe/ Tel: 020 7420 9888.
