We Measure Our Time in Coffee Cups

For centuries, the café has been the favorite gathering place of artists, writers, politicians and philosophers; like a natural law, this has not changed. Today's Tim Hortons continues to reflect that air of intimacy and earthiness. This collection of poems is deeply grounded in that experience. The author has plucked out of the daily routines of those around him seemingly random bits of mundane existence, carefully crafted and polished them into a set of small jewels that reflect aspects of which we may not be immediately aware. With joy of solemnity, with empathy or gentle ridicule, he finds ways to make the ordinary feel special; to bring to light the magic evident even in quiet lives lived around coffee cups.

Presented here are not the great ideas that can change the world. Instead, this is the grit of every day living. Examined away from the distorting lens of alcohol, away from the affections of the bars and pubs, the poet uncovers and shares with us that simple truths can be found in simple places.

Jeff Seffinga was born in the Netherlands and grew up in rural Eastern Ontario, but most of his adult has been lived in Hamilton, where Tim Hortons began. For many years he worked in the health care business while furtively writing and publishing poetry in journals, anthologies, and other collections in Canada and the United States. Currently he is chairman of the directors of the Acorn-Livesay Peoples Festival and a vice president of Tower Poetry Society.