Sad Poets Society № 11

People-watching with Albert Huffstickler

Photo by No Revisions on Unsplash

Welcome to this month’s meeting of the Sad Poets Society. Today, we’ll be discussing “Coffee House Poets” by Albert Huffstickler. I first encountered this poem in November when it was shared on the excellent poetry newsletter Poetic Outlaws. Check it out if you want more poetry delivered straight to your inbox. Now, let’s get into it.

Coffee House Poets

BY ALBERT HUFFSTICKLER

They like to write
where people are.
They like a little noise
with their silence.
They want to look up
and see something. 
They want to be surprised. 
They like the flow
of bodies around them. 
Or perhaps it's just loneliness--
yes, that too. 
But more than that:
they like the atmosphere
a little smoke laden.
They like aromas--
coffee, tobacco, meat frying. 
They like the sudden revelation
as eyes look off
or blur with tears
looking across a table.
Where others court eternity,
they're in love with the moment
in all its tawdriness and glory,
that instant when truth appears
out of nowhere--a truth
as simple and as natural 
as people sitting together
in a room over coffee
in all their vulnerability
and their humanness.

I know it’s cliché, but I love writing in coffee shops. There’s something liminal about them. An enchantment comes from sitting still amid so much activity, from seeing without being seen.