World Chocolate Day: July 7, 1550 is the ‘traditional’ date given for chocolate’s arrival in Europe from the “New World” – in the form of a bitter drink from Mexico – but there is evidence that cacao beans were brought back to Spain earlier than that. However, this date may be when the global craze for chocolate, which shows no signs of slowing down, really took hold.

Rita Dove (1952 – ) American poet and essayist; winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her book Thomas and Beulah; U.S. Poet Laureate (1993-1995), the first African-American (after the title change from  ‘Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress’ to ‘Poet Laureate’), and at age 40, the youngest poet to be appointed Poet Laureate by the Librarian of Congress. Her poetry collections include The Yellow House on the Corner, Mother Love, On the Bus with Rosa Parks, and American Smooth.

To read Rita Dove’s poem “Chocolate” click:

Chocolate

by Rita Dove

Velvet fruit, exquisite square
I hold up to sniff
between finger and thumb –

how you numb me
with your rich attentions!
If I don’t eat you quickly,

you’ll melt in my palm.
Pleasure seeker, if i let you
you’d liquefy everywhere.

Knotted smoke, dark punch
of earth and night and leaf,
for a taste of you

any woman would gladly
crumble to ruin.
Enough chatter: I am ready

to fall in love!

________________________

“Chocolate” from Collected Poems: 1971-2004, © 2004 by Rita Dove – W.W. Norton & Company