Off Beat Poets Society

One of our musician friends in Prague

14th Century sculpture of Karluv Most

Karluv Most

You meet all kinds of interesting people when and where you least expect it sometimes. Or maybe you just gravitate to the kind of places where you are likely to bump into them because they're your kind of people. It's not that they are necessarily interested in the same specific things as you, but rather the attitude and passion they share about what motivates them.

babies

these are NOT parking meters

Prague turned out to be a magnet for many such people who had been drawn there because there is something in the air about Prague that seems to bring out the hidden poet in you. There is the sheer beauty of the old central core of the city, there is the dedication to the arts and preserving, expanding and transmitting the city's classical heritage not only in music but in its art and architecture. It is also a place of innovation and experimentation with both old and new forms of expression from the opera and concert houses to jazz clubs and cafes developing more up to the minute techno and fusion works. You can see sculpture from the 14^th Century and modern art works on display in public parks, museums and city squares.

popular with
tourist cameras--
I wonder why..

from the post Communist era

This bit of nostalgia is not another paean to Prague, but a hats off to people, some of the cool people I met, poets all of whatever stripe you care to imagine, in Prague. They were poets of music, beer, technology, translation, teaching, philosophy, politics, bears, writing, painting, photography, travel, mushrooms that can save the world and simply being in that wonderful town. It was an honor and a privilege to be in their company in bars, cafes, restaurants, parties and homes—not to mention a hell of a lot of fun and great incoherent conversations into the wee small hours. It was a love affair, romantic, and like a romance, all too brief.