mmoa_writes

Tucked down a discreet side street in Covent Garden, the Poetry Caf is a studious little refuge with a Tribeca ambience: pleasantly scuffed furniture, living-room dress code, thickly stocked magazine racks and bookshelves, corkboards freighted with notices and flyers for arts events.
But you don't have to know Petrarch from Petula Clark to feel comfortable behind its frosted-glass faade.
Many of its visitors have left their mark. Ralph Steadman scored and splashed the poetic caricatures on the caf's lampshades. Greg Wise put up the bookshelves on the staircase. His wife Emma Thompson supplied the squashy sofas in the basement. Maggie O'Farrell, Simon Schama, Ben Elton, Nick Heyward, Bjrk and Emily Watson have all sat at its tables, flicked through a copy of Ambit and nibbled on a Portuguese custard tart.
Alan Rickman, Sheila Hancock, Lindsay Duncan, Douglas Hodge and Celia Imrie have also been spotted on the premises.

... No seriously, not just for the star appeal but because I love those sort of places. Give me plenty of room for inspiration for my poetry of which I am trying out certain new styles for the collection. I'm so glad that I wasn't as pompous when I was younger as I am now, otherwise I would have embarrassed myself by getting them published; yes, they're that bad.