The Caffe Dell Artista

Caffe Dell Artista
Location Map
between 6th and 7th Avenues

Sunday, September 4, in the early evening I sat at the small table anchoring the west end of the large front windows of the Caffe Dell Artista overlooking Greenwich Avenue drinking coffee, eating strawberry cheesecake, and writing in my journal.

Sitting here on the second level of the building above a shop that is partly below street level has an aloof intimacy with the avenue and sidewalk that is enticingly engaging for the philosopher-poet (or is it poet-philosopher?) in me.

With bookends in place for my basic trip to Manhattan ... the Belly Delly on the top of Times Square where once Nick's Deli held sway, and the Caffe Dell Artista in Greenwich Village ... I have the underpinnings for variations on the main theme, the theme of being absorbed in the ultimate center of the urban universe.

Just do not think for a moment that I want you to come with me. I am a soloist.

I have tried to share my journeys with others. Shared, they are not the same. And in all but a limited set of exceptions when the company of another is equal to being alone, I prefer being alone.

I don't know why this is. It is.

I have tried to change ... but, alas, I have failed in doing so. Mostly, I suspect, because I feel no need to change ... nor desire.

In fact at the moment I was sitting at the table in the Caffe Dell Artista writing these notes in my journal in long hand among strangers at other tables, absorbing the energy of their presence ... their laughter and noise ... without having to respond, was rich in the awareness of others as I played by myself in the limitless arena of my mind ... thinking and writing ... the sensuous stroke of the pen on paper ... the cursive flow of my penmanship tactilely stimulating ... engaged in way that I can never be when typing on my computer, alone in my home's office.

Part of this feeling is also caught up in my brain overrunning my hand ... and while my mind loops into its own space, coming back to earth to finish the word, the sentence, the paragraph ... I am connecting galaxies of thought and memory in a way that has no equal for me.

Beyond all this is subliminal transcendental awareness of the history of Greenwich Village ... and my connectedness to the human spirit of this place. I love it so.

Note: If you click on the thumbnails below, you can view a larger version of the photo.




Caffe Dell Artista from across Greenwich Avenue.






Myself with my stenographer's notebook journal.