"Curiosity. The sea meeting Italy. The first time ever.
" The young woman sitting in the corner against the bookshelf at Beginnings in Atlantic Beach clinks on her old-school typewriter and hands over a white notecard. On the thick paper is a personalized haiku she'd just written about a very specific topic: lobster spaghetti. Most people don't request poems about food they order at a restaurant.
But local poet Imani Gordon, 29, of Baldwin, is game for anything, and it feels prudent to seek a literary perspective before eating such a unique pasta. Over the course of the night, the rep from the NYC-based company Haikuists composes other on-the-spot haikus about comic books and a customer's forthcoming trip to Greece. After she asks what type of poem you'd like, she peppers you with questions and then closes her eyes and goes silent for a minute before pouring all of her concentration into the typewriter.
This is a good time to take a sip of your spritz, in this case the Spaghetti Western with bourbon, Aperol and lemon ($18), one of five boozy bubbles on offer Monday nights throughout the summer. The weekly event is called "Pasta. Poetry.
Prosecco" and it's quite literally all those things. A special menu offers pink bubbly drinks in a wine glass fitted with a long straw, in addition to half a dozen pasta dishes of varying levels of authenticity. Order, then take a seat with Imani, who's penning haikus for no charge using the ancient Japanese format of five syllables followed by.