Poems from the Coffee Lands

Some people might think of Starbucks as the WalMart of coffee: a Starbucks opens its doors and an independent coffee shop is out of business. Nonetheless, I like Starbucks. Whenever the balance of my Starbucks card drops below $5, it's electronically reloaded with $50 from my checking account. The only thing I dislike is that Starbucks doesn't have a free hot zone for wireless computing but instead lets you pay to go online via tMobile. The good news is that there's a Krispy Kreme with a free hot zone across the street from the Starbucks I go to; its signal is strong enough that I can pick it up from inside Starbucks.

Perhaps I'm naive, but Starbucks does seem to have a conscious. It recycles its coffee grounds, buys coffee from independent coffee farmers in other countries, and sponsors projects to better communities. Starbucks even has a culture of music and literacy.

Today in my mailbox was a gift from Starbucks: a little book of poems called Poems from the Coffee Lands. The postcard size book has poems from Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama. Some of the poets are familiar (Octavio Paz and Jimmy Santiago Baca from Mexico, for example) whereas others are writers I've never heard of (Kifle Bantayehu from Ethiopia and Duda Machado from Brazil). All in all thirty two pages of poems, eight countries, and 14 poets.

Here's one I especially like by Micere Githae Mugo from Kenya:

I Want You to Know

I want you to know
how carefully
I watered the tender shoots
you planted
in my little garden.

Flowers now adorn the ground
the fruits are ripe
Come
bring a strongly woven basket
and bring with you also
the finest palm wine
that your expert tapping
can brew
we must feast and wine
till the small hours
of our short days together

Joy and love
shall be our daily
harvest songs.

Poems from the Coffee Lines is filled with poems like this. I'm not sure I'll take it to Starbucks with me. I'm afraid I might leave it. But it is a book of poems that ought to be passed around.