# Celebrating National Poetry Month

## Coffee and poetry, together. Who says April is the cruelest month?

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> “The periodic pleasure  
> Of small happenings  
> Is upon us”  
>  — Meena Alexander, “Darling Coffee"

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Coffee and poetry share a sweet affinity. Like poetry, [coffee is international](/content/frequency/sprudge-aclu-fundraiser/index.html). Like poetry, the pleasure of coffee can be found in the creative process as well as in the results. Like poetry, coffee can be a solitary delight, or savored with your dear ones. Like poetry, coffee is a comfort, whether someone gives it to you in one of our [cafes](/content/cafes/index.html), or you’ve made it with [your own two hands](/content/at-home/index.html).

Suffice it to say, we think coffee and poetry are best taken together—a “conjugation of joy,” as Alexander might put it. In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve conspired with the [Poetry Society of America](http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/?) to make your coffee ritual that much more joyful: [Blue Bottle At Home subscribers](/content/at-home/index.html) will receive one of our favorite poems in an upcoming coffee delivery.

Not a subscriber? Try our [coffee subscription trial](/content/at-home/index.html) (at no charge), or visit the Poetry Society of America's [website](http://poetrysociety.org/) and get inspired for your next cup of coffee. Below, you'll find one of those favorites we mentioned. Enjoy.

### ESPRESSO

**by** [**Tomas Tranströmer**](https://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/poetry/poets/tomas_transtr_mer/)

> Black coffee at sidewalk cafes  
> With chairs and tables like gaudy insects.  
> It is a precious sip we intercept  
> Filled with the same strength as Yes and No.  
> It is fetched out of gloomy kitchens  
> And looks into the sun without blinking.  
> In daylight a dot of wholesome black  
> Quickly drained by the wan patron...  
> Like those black drops of profundity  
> Sometimes absorbed by the soul  
> That give us a healthy push: Go!  
> The courage to open our eyes.

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_Translated from the Swedish by May Swenson and Leif Sjöberg_

"Espresso," translated by May Swenson and Leif Sjöberg, from _Windows and Stones: Selected Poems_ by Tomas Tranströmer. Copyright © 1971 by University of Pittsburgh Press. Reprinted by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press.