Buy Coffee With Poems On World Poetry Day

In honor of World Poetry Day, Viennese coffee roaster Julius Meinl is giving away free coffee in exchange for original poems by its customers.

According to The Local, 1,100 bars, cafes, and restaurants in 23 different countries will be accepting customer's original, handwritten poems in exchange for cups of coffee on Saturday, March 21. Guests can show up with sonnets, limericks, haiku, or sestinas and exchange the works for coffee. Presumably, coffee can be had regardless of rhyme quality.

Participating coffee shops can be found on a Facebook page for the Pay with a Poem campaign. Most of the participating cafes are in Europe, but there is a Julius Meinl location in Chicago, and it is reportedly participating in the promotion as well.

According to the company, the "pay with a poem" idea came from "a desire to recapture the traditional cultural benefits of Viennese coffee houses, a culture steeped in tradition that has drawn the best from artists and writers for more than a century."