Coffee House Confessions by Ellaraine Lockie
Great Reviews for Coffee House Confessions
Ellaraine Lockie is a widely published and awarded poet, nonfiction book author, and essayist. Coffee House Confessions is her tenth poetry chapbook. Her recent books have received the Best Individual Collection Award from Purple Patch magazine in England, the San Gabriel Poetry Festival Chapbook Prize, and The Aurorean's Chapbook Pick. She teaches poetry workshops and serves as Poetry Editor for the lifestyles magazine, Lilipoh. Ellaraine writes every morning in a coffee shop no matter where she is in the world.
Coffee House Confessions is published by Silver Birch Press and available for $10 at Amazon ($6.99 for the Kindle edition).
"From Italy to Arizona, Lockie examines coffee-shop patrons and their behavior in delicious, subtle detail...Her voice is much more than that of the poet; she is also the observer, the anthropologist, the quiet sentinel, the phantom of these intimate public spaces."
—Emilia Fuentes Grant, The Pedestal Magazine
"I know no one else who manages to combine quantity of poems with quality the way Ellaraine Lockie does. She is a font of creative ideas and brings the ultimate in craft and experience to the realizing of those products of inspiration, observation, and research."
—Gerald Locklin, Professor Emeritus of English at California State University, Long Beach
"It is official; Christmas has arrived early this year with the publication of Ellaraine Lockie's latest book Coffee House Confessions. Yes, I knew the merits of this book before I cracked the cover but each poem gave me an enjoyment that so few other writers can muster. This is a wonderful book by a talented poet. I recommend it highly, especially for those summer days sitting outside at your favorite coffee shop."
—Ed Bennett, Quill and Parchment
"I am enjoying Ellaraine's collection immensely (thank you for sending it, M). Lest one think that this is a batch of self-indulgent L.A.-themed poetry, rest assured that the settings for these moving short stories in poetic verse are international in flavor and tone (Spain and Portugal, for instance) and there are universal truths aplenty, from musings on the unkind aspects of aging, to the self-justified apathy toward the less fortunate in society (and on the sidewalks and outdoor patios of coffee hutches that we share every day).
"In the terrific work 'Man About Town', Ms. Lockie essays the plight of a man observed from the patio of a Leaf and Bean coffee house, presumably in L.A., an impeccably groomed gentleman with 'two-day stubble and longhair look of a GQ model'. Within moments of his appearance in the story, the irresistible man about town of whom, 'any female looking his way...would become an immediate student', begins 'ransacking the trash cans out front' for the few remaining swallows in spent coffee cups. In closing, Lockie observes:
And not one of us watching
wishes to humble him
with the truth of a hand-out"
—Rodger Jacobs, Journalist
Here in full is "Man About Town" from Coffee House Confessions:
Man About Town
His stride was a study in meter
And any female looking his way
from the Leaf and Bean
as he crossed the street
would become an immediate student
Black leather blazer
Body cigar-straight in blue jeans
tucked into boots
Dark hair growing out of his halfway
unbuttoned tan shirt
Two-day stubble and longhair look
of a GQ model
Five sips of coffee later I look up
And he's ransacking
the four trash cans out front
Toasting other people's excess
with paper cups
In moves as fluid as the lattes
chai and chocolate milks
that slide down his throat
He's become a fine wine connoisseur
Who couldn't be bothered to replace
hiking boots with soles wallet-thin
Whose domestic help forgot to hem
the lining that hangs below black leather
Or wash the once-white shirt
that wears the foods he's scavenging
Now he's the city sanitation engineer
conducting a field study
Who sets aside samples of pizza
submarine sandwiches and chicken wing bones
Scoops it all with bureaucratic certainty
into a threadbare backpack
And not one of us watching
wishes to humble him
with the truth of a hand-out
