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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
 
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Everyday Canvas #963396 added July 29, 2019 at 5:21pm
Restrictions: None
Sidewalk Cafés
Prompt: What do you think of sidewalk cafés? How about writing a description, a story, or a poem about one such café that you have seen or visited?
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I think the sidewalk café idea is a worldwide phenomenon because I can’t think of any country I visited which didn’t have such a café even though the sidewalk cafés in Paris almost always steal the show in people’s imaginations. Sometimes, these establishments get so out of hand that they become sidewalk restaurants. One such place is situated across the street from the Metropolitan Opera in NY city.
When visiting such a large and sometimes fancy place, the etiquette is to sit and wait to be served. If the café is not crowded or rather there are only one or two customers in a place with more than 10-15 tables, the servers might not notice you. Then you have to go in and ask to order.
When ready to pay, if a check has not been presented, the thing to do is to catch a waiter’s eye and make a motion as if writing on one’s palm. Writing on the palm motion is recognized worldwide (I think). Even in distant countries, one can make his wishes known through this specific gesture.
Then, wherever they may be situated, sidewalk cafés always attract the artistically inclined. Sitting at a sidewalk café while sipping an espresso is the finest way for writers to people watch, and authors past and present have made the note-taking or writing poems on a paper napkin the thing to do. In fact, it is said that even when the Germans took over Paris during World War II, one could still see people writing poetry on napkins while the Nazis strutted about.
Curiously, a long time ago, in the East Village in NY city, I’ve witnessed a Poetry Slam taking place. This just goes to show the staunch resolve of poets to experience and reflect their environment.
Surely, in the northern regions, the best time for sitting at a sidewalk café is Spring, Summer, and possibly early Fall, since during the frigid months, most of the cafés will move their sidewalk tables and chairs indoors. Talking for yours truly, in my younger days, I had a love affair with any or all sidewalk cafés. Nowadays, I am not very comfortable with exhaust fumes from the cars, but if they are not situated on a busy thoroughfare, the sidewalk cafés still hold their charm for me.
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