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The Café Review has published poetry longer than most marriages last

30 years of publishing poetry, that's an achievement, not just for April which is poetry month, but for poetry.

PORTLAND, Maine — There are certain forms of art and expression that have a sharp edge. Meaning, when mentioned eyes may roll in disgust or indifference, and then, shock & awe when the delivery of some expression floors us into submission. Performance art is one of these classifications, and of course, poetry. When you hear about a poetry reading you may not run to grab your coat and are out the door in your socks on a winters eve brimming with excitement. Some of you may, but this is why the term 'periphery' exists. Yet, when we read words put together in such a clear & creative style, communicating heart & compunction with purity and ease, we may refer to it as 'poetic.' Alas, poetry gets the rub in the end.

Not here in Portland. The Café Review has been publishing poetry for 30 years. Started as a thoughtful conversation at a bar in Portland, it continues to gather submissions from some of the most influential poets around the world as well as someone scribbling a note on a napkin, again, words put together with a currency of power & struggle, communicating the rust & decay or our always samsara, and there it is, the nose bleed of unseen pleasure. How did that happen? It's just words, and now you're crying or are you laughing, something is happening, and 23 silly words did it?

Yup, that's poetry.

And The Café Review has been at it for 3 decades. Go ahead, have a look, awaken that lost & joyous fool you left sleeping in a darkened cerebral alley, you may just fall in love again, or for the first time.

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