HAPPY EASTER !!!

It's day 16 of 30 poems in 30 days.

Today's artiste is (Small but perfectly formed) Susan McCartney

Her poem is about the ultimate hispters drink......Coffee

ODE TO A JAR OF ALTA RICA

Bold and intense

My Latin American lifeline

You lift my spirits each day

A shot in the arm of a legal high

My dusky Arabica bean

I’m drawn like moth to flame

I adore your curvaceous exterior

Your moulded sensuous waist

Pulled taut

As if by whalebone stays

But I see through

To your freeze dried shards

To your addictive heart

Unopened you reveal a golden foil

Sealed tight like a virgin’s hymen

Waiting to be popped

For eager fingers to pierce

You yield to their touch

Like an addict

I inhale your smoky aroma

What pleasure as a host

Of toasted, roasted most

Intense sensations of bliss

Caress my nostrils

Creep into my brain

Filling my senses with pleasure

I cannot live without you

You have me in a vice

Your pickpocket fingers have hooked me

Your tendrils have found purchase

In every fibre

I’m prisoner

You’re the monkey on my back

I drain you down

Receive that hit with a sigh

I am lost to your power

Slave to your full dark body

My kitchen an opium den

Where I chase the dragon

Of caffeine

Susan

Interesting Facts About Coffee

COFFEE WAS ORIGINALLY CHEWED.

Sipping may be your preferred method of java consumption, but coffee has not always been a liquid treat. According to a number of historians, the first African tribes to consume coffee did so by grinding the berries together, adding in some animal fat, and rolling these caffeinated treats into tiny edible energy balls.

INSTANT COFFEE HAS BEEN AROUND FOR NEARLY 250 YEARS.

Instant coffee has been around for a while, making its first appearance in England in 1771. But it would take another 139 years for the first mass-produced instant coffee to be introduced (and patented) in the U.S. in 1910.

FINLAND IS THE WORLD’S COFFEE CAPITAL.

Though Finland does not produce any beans of its own, its citizens drink a lot of the brown stuff—the most of any country in the world.

BEETHOVEN WAS A BARISTA’S WORST NIGHTMARE.

Beethoven enjoyed a cup of coffee, and was extremely particular about its preparation; he insisted that each cup he consumed be made with exactly 60 beans !

COFFEE BEANS SENT BRAZILIAN ATHLETES TO THE OLYMPICS.

In 1932, Brazil couldn't afford to send its athletes to the Olympics in Los Angeles. So they loaded their ship with coffee and sold it along the way.

THERE HAVE BEEN SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO BAN THE BEVERAGE ENTIRELY.

As recently as the 18th century, governments were trying to eradicate coffee. Among the many reasons for outlawing the beverage were its tendency to stimulate “radical thinking.” In 1746 Sweden took things to an extreme when it banned both coffee and coffee paraphernalia (i.e. cups and saucers).

17TH-CENTURY WOMEN THOUGHT IT WAS TURNING THEIR MEN INTO “USELESS CORPSES.”

In 1674, the Women's Petition Against Coffee claimed the beverage was turning British men into "useless corpses" and proposed a ban on it for anyone under the age of 60.

THE WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE COFFEE COMES FROM ANIMAL POOP.

Kopi Luwak, the world’s most expensive coffee, earns its pricey distinction thanks to a surprising step in its production: digestion. In Indonesia, a wild animal known as the Asian palm civet (a small critter similar to the weasel) cannot resist the bright red coffee cherries that abound, even though they can’t digest the actual coffee beans. The beans pass through the civets' systems without being fully digested. At which point, some brave coffee farmer collects the beans from the civets’ droppings, (hopefully) thoroughly washes them, and sells them for more than £500 per pound.

THERE’S A STARBUCKS AT CIA HEADQUARTERS.

Some officers at the Central Intelligence Agency call it “Stealthy Starbucks,” but employees at the Langley, Virginia location definitely aren’t your typical Starbucks employees. For one, they must undergo extensive background checks and they cannot leave their post without a CIA escort. On the positive side: they don’t have to write down or shout out their customers’ names!

Poetry Challenge

NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

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