Katherine's Coffeehouse

Thoughts, drafts and poetry in progress. Take a sip.

#KatherinesCoffeehouse

Teacher

Living as a poet is hard. See, the teacher is always changing, not just when September comes, but every moment the temperature drops, or the rain does the same. That moment you started to sweat? Or turn on the bathroom tap? Or revel in a short shower? Or cry? Those things, they make the coloring […]
poems Katherine Gotthardt

Heading Up

Do we all get where we’re headed? I’d like to believe I do. I’ve held a cold hand or two, rubbed a few backs, running my fingers, lightly, from illness’s base up to where it all ends. See, it’s a paradox. We come out top to bottom, but mortality begins at the foundation, works its […]
Katherine Gotthardt New Book

New Book Coming

It’s hard to believe only last year Bury My Under a Lilac was released, and I’m already ready to release another poetry collection. But when you write for a year at least once per week and you take the time to go back and edit, it might be time to think about publishing – again. […]

In Store

On course for spring, we run into frigidity, a storefront of lingering winter. See how we crash through the front window, streaking across the icy foyer, skidding our way to the stockroom, knocking down half-displays of navy capris and white t-shirts. They were just about to unpack the short-shorts, too. Too bad.   #KatherinesCoffeehouse

Monday Unhanded

This Monday morning, pear blossoms tumbling with the wind, white cloud grounded, blue sky clapping with one hand. Well done. #KatherinesCoffeehouse #PoemsAroundTown See this poem live at Imagine.
Katherine Gotthardt poetry stones biblical

Passage

Never turn back, they say. But my back takes the stone barrage, bleeding faster than gossip, bruising like a damaged fig. What am I, some biblical scapegoat? Bring your bitterness to the Jordan. Drown it. See if you survive.   #KatherinesCoffeehouse  

Cubano

To write poetry, you must untrain your brain, forget the rigidities of relationships. Where is the mug of Cuban coffee you made me a moment ago? Here, in the sunlight, keeping it warm. I’d like to stay here. Here. Sip it. #KatherinesCoffeehouse #PoemsAroundTown See this poem at Grounds Central Station.
old computers used as metaphor for passing of time

Monitor

All screens switch. Not momentarily – any milli-moment. Count them in fractions. One-one hundredth. Two. Dissolved into some vague animation where a single slide begets another, crumbled pixels, the one before lost in the attention span of a short-sighted user. What matters is the next page, yes? What happens is the following, when nothing we […]

Sail

When in the throws of spring I remove my top in public, will you sail quickly, back towards conventional wind? More importantly— will you bail me out?   #KatherinesCoffeehouse  

Now Untitled

For everyone missing their mother, I offer you a memory of mine: She hugged strangers, invited the lonely to dinner in her own home, fed everyone too much turkey and ravioli. Sometimes canned ham, too. And she always mailed us Easter baskets, even when we were grown. All that cheap chocolate, wrapped up in too […]
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