Café Crem: “Let us talk about us”

Never let it be said that Cafe Crem doesn’t play it’s part on the world political stage…today, moved by the insane events in the Islamic stronghold of The Sudan, namely, the incarceration of British teacher Gillian Gibbons for allowing the children in her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed.

I present here an Islamic latte, a powerful brew of bigoted seventh century hogwash, served in a cup that may or may not be a likeness of some random Muslim bloke. I’m told that, if peaceful muslims fully appreciate the taste, it may actually cause them to wake up and smell the coffee, and thereby publicly denounce these fanatics who are poisoning their religion.

Check out my verse at Muse on the Rock where, coupled with a joint art piece by Miki and I, I vent my spleen about this crazy situation

 Kev Moore

Then come to Café Crem, and you will love it again, as when you were a child!

on bended knee+

shattered and broken
i walk a trodden path
and find myself
endured

i can’t accept this pact
on bended knee
deep in mud
my belly empty
my will weakened

yet i continue
the fall rain comes
with winds beating me down
and my spirit is so far from me now

i see in the distance
a small village
there i find shelter and food
but not for me

upon arriving i find one weaker than i
and i deliver him upon the steps
and fall under his weight
i am conscious no more

when i awake he is standing there beside me
like a friend i’ve known for many years
he seems so beautiful
and his eyes translucent
and his skin pure

do not move he says
nor speak
i know you know
let me give drink
and i shall tell you my story

and he did
and my spirit found me near
and my eyes filled with tears
for he was the man i had carried
i rememberd now

ah yes i knew you would
and taking my hand in his he said
you carried me when all was forgotten

i knew i had forgotten my freind
the one true person in my life i could trust
i felt the shame he did not want me to feel
and i felt the humility he did not want me to endure

when i awoke he was gone
and i felt better now and stonger
clarity of mind had come
and i remembered it was not a dream

he never returned again
but i never stopped to forget our friendship
i never felt shame but taught others to be proud
i used humility as my currency
wherever my journey would take me
and i never had a moment of doubt
that it was he that i carried that night

i had been waiting all my life to be blessed
and learned to find blessings in everything I did instead
I had wandered of the path when weakened
only to have found strength
in all the broken places

i lived out my life in joy and happiness
i showed him that i knew i had understood
i never backed down from the hardships
destiny had given me
and when my time came
it was he who i called for
and noticed that there were so many others
that answered the call as well

Copyright © Michael Pokocky 2007

I remember those “Christmassy”, typical, eggnug Stanta cups which you could use, of course, for anything. They are somehow a symbol of Xmass. Bright red and white. I can smell the chocolate inside. Hummm!

After several attempts, I could finally post the picture.  I want to thank Miki for allowing me to be here. As most of you paint,  I wasn’t sure whether to post my poem or not…so I decided to turn it into a drawing… A pink coffee cup filled with words with a scent of coffee for you to taste on Christmas night.

Hope you like it!

Mary 

Susan has been busy lately trying to keep us fed and serving us delicious coffee each morning, so she asked me to do her first contest entry. This morning she plunks down this coffee mug and I have a look. Who’s the guy with the pink cheeks anyway?

So while I’m checking it out, my sisters, Rasheed and Cloe race up and drain all the coffee so I don’t get any. The nerve of them! That’s what it’s like here in the hen yard. I’m hoping the Christmas spirit enters my sisters’ hearts by tomorrow at least, so I can get some of that coffee!

-Zoey

What a sensory delight I have for you. On Sunday’s I take one of the kids to La Chocolaterie Marie Claude in Ste-Adele and we always have the same thing. Cafe Viennoise with real , and bittersweet chocolate chip shavings and a touch of a secret blend of spices . When this arrives it is overflowing down the side of the mug you see in the picture. Oh I just looked and I think that beautiful part of a cup that matches the plate has been licked clean. Then the hot fudge brownie arrives with a cup of hot liquid chocolate and the plate is adorned with delectable and hand peeled fruit that is so succulent. This is such an amazing experience and for those that love chocolate this place is offering the real deal.
Now Miki you wrote in your email to me about Paolo Coelho and the very first entry you made in Café Crem. It was called “Mona Piedra”. A very touching story for me, you said and then said, You never commented it to me, so I´m not sure you saw it? You sent me the link and the story I tell here is that the owners of La Chocolaterie went on the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage the same route Paulo took before he decided writing is what he wanted to do.
On there first or second night there they stayed in a room on the route and below it was a Chocolaterie where Antoine and Marie Claude learned the ancient art of making chocolate. Also they had been trying to have a baby but the doctors said impossible.
Now they have Clarissa and she’s so sweet and their favorite movie is Chocolate with Johnny Depp and I swear to God this is a true story and it all came out in the open between us all when I brought Shirley McLean’s book The Camino where she documents her pilgrimage too. Marie Claude saw me reading it and that is how this whole story and photo ended up here for Christmas. For those that don’t think its Christmas then think chocolate and see the partial of the mug in the picture.

I send you a small view of the Strasbourg Christkindelsmärik hoping that you can smell the sweet odor of christmas trees, hot chestnuts, cinnamon and gingerbread. Choose what you will plop into your christmas cup - hot red or white wine with cinnamon or honey, tea with special christmas spices, hot chocolate with praline flavour, hot sweet cider, schnaps or…a café crem of course- and let’s have a toast to our beautiful rendez-vous here. Cheers! Santé! Salud! Auf Dein Wohl!
PS: For the anecdote, Strasbourg was declared the European Christmas Capital and following a report on CNN, the magical town has been invaded by a horde of gourmand americans! The Christmas spirit knows no frontier and the christmas market has less and less space and pretzels…

CONTESSINE

This is probably the most famous Christmas tree in the world. It is presented each year by the City of Oslo to the City of London (This year being the 61st) and stands proudly in Trafalgar square. It was first donated in 1947, in recognition of the special friendship between the two countries. King Haakon led his goverment in exile in London, whilst the BBC broadcast news in Norwegian to the occupied country, sending vital coded messages to help the resistance effort. The Norwegians never forgot this, and this special gift has become an intrinsic part of Christmas for Londoners. It is lit in a special ceremony on the first Thursday of December. I like to think our Coffee Cup Club embodies the same spirit, reaching out across the oceans in friendship. And don’t you think the reflection in the water looks like a golden caramel latte?? Merry Christmas!

Kev Moore

I just want to annouce an enormous modification to the first rule of our Café Crem Christmas Competition:

1. You must make entries around Christmas cups. Because it is Christmas, and because I feel generous, I have decided, for this competition, to allow other cups than coffee cups to participate: hot chocolate, tea,  Glühwein, vin chaud, gingerbread and eggnog lattes, advil hangover specials etc…Like always it can be drawings, paintings, photos, music, poetry, texts, videos, etc. No limits are set: use your brain and show us something funny, original, crazy, whatever you want.

Good luck!