Outstanding Reviews for Coffee House Confessions, poems by Ellaraine Lockie

Congratulations to Ellaraine Lockie on the stellar reviews for her poetry chapbook Coffee House Confessions (Silver Birch Press, 2013). Reviews are featured at the Winning Writers Newsletter site (winningwriters.com) and also  included below along with some additional blurbs.

“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. 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…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).” Rodger Jacobs, Journalist

“This collection deserves a wide audience…once coffee houses were locales for galvanizing live poetry readings, now we can achieve almost the same nirvana by reading this witty book.” Christine Pacosz, FutureCycle Press

“…a very well done collection of poems… there’s something for everyone in this collection. If you love contemporary poetry, you are sure to find some gems here that speak to you. If you don’t know if you love contemporary poetry, this might be a good place to start finding out.” Marcia Meara, Bookin’ It

“…a really great read.” Jessie Carty, Review Wrap-Up, jessiecarty.com

Find Coffee House Confessions by Ellaraine Lockie at Amazon.com.

Review of Coffee House Confessions by Ellaraine Lockie

Congratulations to Ellaraine Lockie, author of the Silver Birch Press poetry release COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS on another stellar review — this one from the literary magazine THE MOM EGG. Excerpts from the review are included below.

THE MOM EGG BOOK REVIEW
by Katie Baker

Coffee shops are considered diverse gathering places, establishments where all walks of life, both young and old, come to read, write, congregate and socialize — and most importantly, get their coffee fix. However, one forgets the importance of the ritual cup when they begin to read Ellaraine Lockie’s chapbook, Coffee House Confessions. The chapbook features poems written in and about coffee houses around the world…

…what makes these poems in this chapbook unique is Lockie’s ability to connect — connect the reader to a place, a person (or people) and to materials through her writing. She creatively takes normal human behavior, mundane human interactions and creates beautifully crafted poems out of the occurrences…

Lockie has a unique talent in being able to observe without intruding, to even play along albeit with subtle humor, and become part of the story without becoming overwhelming to the reader. In the seemingly ordinary details of the coffee houses, we find extraordinary prose, clever and witty…

Her chapbook is refreshing, full of vibrant imagery. Each poem offers a humorous, poignant, and creative escape into the life of the coffee house.

***

Coffee House Confessions by Ellaraine Lockie is available at Amazon.com.

Cover image by Nick Warzin, nickwarzin.com

Coffee House Confessions Reviewed at Quill and Parchment

The recent Silver Birch Press poetry release COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS by Ellaraine Lockie has garnered a rave from reviewer Ed Bennett at Quill and Parchment (quillandparchment.com).

Here are some excerpts from Bennett’s review:

Christmas has arrived early this year with the publication of Ellaraine Lockie’s latest book Coffee House Confessions. As always, Ms. Lockie has assembled a group of poems that allows one to read and then spend some time pondering the relationship between her words and our own emotional landscape. The theme of this book revolves around Ms. Lockie’s personal discipline of going to a coffee shop, no matter where she may be, and draw inspiration from the rest of the patrons and the staff. The resulting collection is a laser eyed look at humanity and the way we interact in this caffeinated laboratory…

Ellaraine Lockie has written ten collections of poetry and, not surprisingly, she has won awards both in the United States and in the United Kingdom. This latest book carries the characteristic stamp of her work: accessible language with creative imagery and an understanding eye that sees deeper into the realities of the world.  Despite the familiarity of style, each of her books is a unique work and Coffee House Confessions is no exception. While we may see our local coffee shop as a good place for a brew, Ms. Lockie sees a workshop of human interaction. What we may dismiss as a fleeting gesture, she finds a more complex meaning.
 
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.

Read the entire review at Quill and Parchment.

Coffee House Confessions Reviewed at Examiner.com

Congratulations to Ellaraine Lockie, author of the Silver Birch Press poetry release COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS, for her book’s review in the May 2, 2013 Examiner. We are including the stellar review in its entirety below.

A POET FINDS A MUSE
Examiner.com review
by Cheryl Wyneken

Ellaraine Lockie’s book of poetry, Coffee House Confessions (Silver Birch Press, 2013), piques my interest with its fresh ground coffee aroma that brings the promise of insights into life rising on each page. It introduces us to people of all sizes and shapes, cultures, ages, race and political or religious outlooks: a Teddy Bear man, raking pebbles in a Buddhist Zen sand garden out front, a Stockbroker in a Silicon Valley suit, an Italian coffee maker/at the Bar La Cisteria, the ghosts of Lord Byron, Hans Christian Andersen and Luis Vaz de Camoes. As the title suggests, the collection is a compilation of the insights Lockie has gained from watching people come and go in coffee shops around the world where she arrives daily with pen and pad in hand.

As a true poet she uses vibrant images: Starbucks, Santa Claus, stage four Jesus, Mountain Man, Mobile, pack of Camels, Salem cigarettes and Valium. Her delightful free style poems are also enhanced by her use of poetic compression and alliteration: bristle/brush and lettering/lizards.

Lockie opens the collection with “Java Genetics,” an analysis of the connection between storytelling around campfires of prehistory, to today’s coffee houses and poets, likening their relationship to a seed (coffee bean) that has been planted and evolved in our DNAs. She explains her use of the word confessions in “White Noise and Other Muses”: Little does she know I’m eating her alive. “The Privacy of Public” deals with how troubles in life can often be dealt with better under the restraint of strangers watching: Something horrible here that can be alluded to/…perhaps only in the privacy of public. In “The Young and The Restless,” she finds memories from her own life in one coffee house as she watches the antics of a lively dog: The woman ties her charge to the table legs/…He sniffs the air then yanks the table toward /leftovers in a garbage can.

The last entry, “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby,” brings us to a typical coffee shop occasion portrayed as a scene in Edwardian England where the poet has come to sell her chapbooks and a sale buys the day’s quota of caffeine.

I recommend this entertaining and well rendered collection of poems.

Coffee House Confessions is available in Kindle and paperback formats at Amazon or ordered from bookstores.

Cover photo: Nick Warzin (nickwarzin.com)

Poet Ellaraine Lockie Meets Photographer Nick Warzin in NYC

Ellaraine Lockie, author of the Silver Birch Press poetry release COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS, performed at the Two Moon Art House and Cafe in Brooklyn on April 7th — and in the audience was Nick Warzin, the Toronto-based photographer who shot the photograph that appears on the cover of her book (included below). Lockie received an email from Warzin in the afternoon and learned that he was also in NYC. She invited him to the gig and they met at last — and commemorated the meeting with the photo you see here. For more about Nick Warzin, visit his website at nickwarzin.com.

Ellaraine Lockie at Two Moon Art House and Cafe, NYC, April 7, 2013

Ellaraine Lockie, author of the Silver Birch Press poetry release COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS, will appear with Rose Auslander in a reading entitled “Bi-Coastal Poetry: California Meets Gowanus” at the Two Moon Art House & Cafe in Brooklyn on Sunday, April 7th, from 5:30 – 7 p.m.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS…

Ellaraine Lockie, a California resident, was awarded the 2013 Women’s National Book Association’s Poetry Prize, Best Individual Collection from Purple Patch magazine in England, and won the San Gabriel Poetry Festival Chapbook Contest for Red for the Funeral and The Aurorean’s 2012 Chapbook Spring Pick for Wild as in Familiar. Her latest chapbook is Coffee House Confessions from Silver Birch Press.

Rose Auslander, who lives in Gowanus (Brooklyn), is Poetry Editor of Folded Word Press, Editor of unFold magazine, co-editor of the Twitter anthology, On A Narrow Windowsill and author of the chapbook Folding Water. She has read her poems on NPR, her poem “For You Mothers” received a Pushcart nomination, and her “Oh My” was nominated for Best of the Net.

Photo: Rose Auslander (left) and Ellaraine Lockie.

2013 Release: Coffee House Confessions, Poems by Ellaraine Lockie

In 2013, Silver Birch Press released the poetry chapbook COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS by Ellaraine Lockie – a collection of poems written in and about coffee houses throughout the world.

During a recent discussion about COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS, Ellaraine Lockie talked about what had inspired the collection. Here’s what she had to say.

“[My inspiration was] Coffee shops, both nationally and internationally, when I write each morning wherever I happen to be. I go to them for the white noise, caffeine infusions, intoxicating smell of grinding coffee beans, and the animation surrounding me.  All of this simulates my creative energy.

It was never my intention to write about the coffee houses themselves, though.  I go in order to work on other poems, but there’s a corner in my mind that absorbs what is happening around me . . . and that’s usually a lot.  Coffee shops are community hot spots—places where the full gamut of human behavior plays out daily.  Sitting in the middle of it is like living in a small town.  And if anything seems poetic, I jot it down on a list.  Sometimes that list turns into poems.  And here they are in COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS.“

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 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.

Find Coffee House Confessions by Ellaraine Lockie at Amazon.com.

Cover photo by Nick Warzin. Find him at nickwarzin.com.

Guest Blogger: Ellaraine Lockie, Author of Coffee House Confessions

This post was written by Ellaraine Lockie, author of the recent Silver Birch Press Release, COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS, a poetry chapbook.

POETRY NEWS

The illustrious Rose Auslander has tagged me [Ellaraine Lockie] to join The Next Best Thing, started by poet Elizabeth Scanlon.  It’s an ongoing network of interviews in which each writer with a book coming out tags another set of writers, and the interviews can then be posted on publishers’ and other writers’/poets’ blogs, etc.  Here’s mine:

Ellaraine Lockie’s Interview Tagged by Rose Auslander for The Next Big Thing.

 What is the working title of the book?

COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS

Where did the idea come from for the book? 

From coffee houses, and the people who frequent them, all over the world.

What genre does your book fall under?

Poetry

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

The lead could be Anjelica Huston, but the supporting cast would be so many that we couldn’t afford big names.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

The confessions in this book are disclosures of a culture in glimpses into both historical and present-day life, with its contradictions and quirks—all through the lens of coffee shops.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

The poems were written over the past ten years.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Coffee shops, both nationally and internationally, when I write each morning wherever I happen to be. I go to them for the white noise, caffeine infusions, intoxicating smell of grinding coffee beans and the animation surrounding me.  All of this simulates my creative energy.

It was never my intention to write about the coffee houses themselves, though.  I go in order to work on other poems, but there’s a corner in my mind that absorbs what is happening around me . . . and that’s usually a lot.  Coffee shops are community hot spots—places where the full gamut of human behavior plays out daily.  Sitting in the middle of it is like living in a small town.  And if anything seems poetic, I jot it down on a list.  Sometimes that list turns into poems.  And here they are in COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Possibly some insight about people and events and maybe a few chuckles too.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It was released on February 3, 2013 by Silver Birch Press – and is available in Kindle and paperback formats at Amazon.com. The chapbook can also be ordered from bookstores, using the book’s title and author or the ISBN number: 0615727670.

Cover photo: Nick Warzin, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Feb. 2013 Release: Coffee House Confessions by Ellaraine Lockie

Silver Birch Press is pleased to announce the February 2013 publication of the poetry chapbook COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS by Ellaraine Lockie — a collection of poems written in and about coffee houses throughout the world.

“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. I admire her work immensely.” GERALD LOCKLIN, Professor Emiritus of English at California State University, Long Beach

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 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.

Find Coffee House Confessions by Ellaraine Lockie at Amazon.com.

Cover photo by Nick Warzin. Find him at nickwarzin.com.

Coffee House Confessions, Poems by Ellaraine Lockie

“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons...”

From “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot

Coming soon from Silver Birch Press — a modern take on coffee, coffee houses, and coffee spoons: COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS, a chapbook of 26 poems by Ellaraine Lockie. A poem from the collection is featured below.

IN THE PRIVACY OF PUBLIC

Two women sit silent
surrounded by the clamor of the coffee shop
Matching shades of sandy blonde hair
The same sea-green eyes
Except the younger pair
stare through rims red as coral
into some far-off horizon
The light in them drowned
 
Beacons in the older set
Her hand stretched
across the table stroking the other woman’s
folded arm that holds up her chin
Only one blink when saltwater eyes
are dabbed with a napkin
 
The ice in one glass has melted
Coffee across from it would be cold
Yet the rubbing does not ebb
Something horrible here that can be alluded to
only through an umbilical cord
And perhaps only in the privacy of public

Note: Silver Birch Press will publish Coffee House Confessions by Ellaraine Lockie in November 2012.

Cover photo: Nick Warzin, nickwarzin.com