Kathleen Herrmann: California Poets Part 10, Three Poems

Kathleen Herrmann

April 2nd, 2026

California Poets: Part X

Kathleen Herrmann

Three Poems

Simple Gifts

Baby’s fingerprints on my glasses

Sourdough bread fresh and warm under breadbasket linen

Foghorn bellowing down the shrouded strait

Pendulous raindrops on my window as they cling, burst, streak

Simple gifts come

Green flash just after buttery sun melts away

Harmonics flying from plucked strings, ringing on air

Death throes of ebony bumblebee, furry legs reaching for one more step on cold concrete

Ocean wave thinning to transparent aqua curl just before the crack-boom

Simple gifts go

Your luminous soul fluttering about me like pastel petals in spring

Simple gifts complete us

Irreplaceable You

After the darkest hour, the first robin sings

Fluted melody snags my slumber, plays untamed and free

Breath rushes into every hollow

Slack muscles stretch, languid mind swims, sleeps’ amnesia lifts just

enough to feel you like a phantom limb

Irreplaceable You

The first robin leads chorus of brassy warblers

Bedcovers, dresser, blinds framed in morning light, white door are

bathed in color and texture

Relief floods every dark corner, like turning on the house lights and I rewind

yesterday

You walked toward me cradling something in the palm of your hand

I cracked open its soft shell

Milky fluid oozed, embryonic life flipped and flopped

We held the look between us

Bliss curls around my toes, ripples up my spine, washes over my belly,

flows behind the curve of my neck

I feel you like the first robin, calling me to sing

Irreplaceable You

Arrow

Arrow sprints down the alley, rifle slung over one shoulder, springs onto the bottom rung

of the ladder, scales it with one hand, and lands with a belly flop, combat crawling to the

edge

The wreckage of the latest mortar attack litters the plaza

Eyes scan high, low, side to side, forward and back, ears tune to a predatory frequency

Brain computes angles, body steels itself

Three soldiers in the crosshairs strike casual poses on the distant hilltop

Trigger finger relaxes as Arrow flashes back to that day in the country, flying over the

backroads in father’s car, wild and free

Target chosen

Aim for the heart, four chambers lub-dubbing

The soldier flails, back arches

Recalibrate for the second hit

No!

The bullet ricochets from the spot where she had been lying, warmed by her breasts

and belly

She bolts down an inside stairway, bursts into blinding sunlight, burning with hate for the

men on the hill

Father, I am a hunter, like you. I kill with my third eye and your weapon. Forgive me,

Father. This I must do.

Arrow tips her chin to the sky and draws a dotted line with her fingertip, wild and free

If only she could fly

Interview

May 6th, 2026

California Poets Interview Series:

Kathleen Herrmann, Poet, Musician, Educator

interviewed by David Garyan

DG: From 2024 to 2025 you had the privilege, in tandem with Jacalyn Eyvonne, to serve Vallejo’s as the city’s poet laureate. What did you enjoy most about the tenure and what do you love about working in this community?

KH: In our town, we have a “Vallejo Strong” vibe. We work together to overcome the challenges of being a community without a lot of wealth or resources while celebrating our spirit, creativity and our lively arts scene. Reaching out to residents of Vallejo and beyond with literary programs and events has gathered people of diverse backgrounds who connect through poetry and shared life experiences. After two years, people continue to show up and speak out, facilitated by our current Poet Laureate, Erik Manuel Soto, Vallejo’s first Mexican-American Laureate.

DG: Having officially retired from teaching, you have, not long ago, taught poetry to students as a Vallejo Teaching Artist. What do you miss most about being in class and how did this recent work contrast with what you did in the past?

KH: As a retired educator, what I miss the most is building relationships with students and their families based on respect, differentiation, and positive reinforcement, which sets them up for academic, cognitive and emotional progress. Young students generally don’t perceive their progress, so I would do an activity at the end of the school year where they looked at old work samples and reread the books they were reading 10 months ago. It was an “a-ha” moment for them to discover and celebrate how far they had come. Student progress is the biggest reward of teaching. 

DG: During your long teaching career, you contributed greatly to youth literacy. To what extent did you use poetry in these initiatives and how did students respond to it?

KH: Writers Workshop was always my favorite time of my teaching day. Through Vallejo Teaching Artists, I was able to teach poetry to third through eighth grade students in our Vallejo City Unified School District classrooms and publish students' poems in the first ever Vallejo children’s anthology, Pencils & Dreams. This project allowed me to focus on poetry alone, which I’ve found to be such a rich genre for kids. Students are excited when they discover that as poets, they can write about whatever is most important to them. We had some silent meditation time to find those big things inside our heads and hearts. They wrote fantasies about blasting into space, the beauty of nature, love for a pet, recess fun, friendship and family, sometimes expressing grief for a deceased family member. At the book launch event, our local indie bookshop overflowed with enthusiastic teachers and families. That day will remain a highlight of my time as Poet Laureate.

DG: You’re singer and experienced musician, playing a wide variety of instruments such as piano, guitar, and ukulele. At what point did you discover music, when did you feel confident enough to perform, and to what extent do you blend poetry and musical performance on stage?

KH: I love this question! My mother was a classically trained pianist with a powerful soprano voice. As soon as I could sit next to her on the piano bench and turn the pages in her Rodgers and Hammerstein songbook, I was singing along. Piano lessons soon followed, and by my teen years, playing music became a respite from life’s complications. As a young adult, I sang in choruses. Eventually, I joined a close harmony trio singing swing tunes, then stepped up to solo work. All of the musicians I’ve collaborated with and music directors who have encouraged me were, and still are, essential in growing my confidence, especially my mother. Two weeks before she died she attended a trio performance, dressed to the nines and glowing with pride. As for combining poetry and music, I’ve been inspired by other poets’ spoken and sung word performances to merge these two congruent artistic forms. Some of my poems are partially sung, some include percussion, some use a songwriting compositional structure and some use musical metaphors and similes to describe life’s ambiguities. I want to keep exploring new ways to join music and poetry.

DG: When discussing your poetry, you’ve mentioned writing about “small moments with big feelings.” Is there a specific mentor or poet who inspired this approach and could you say more about what methods you prefer to achieve this? 

KH: When I taught prose and poetry writing to elementary students, our writing curriculum was based on Lucy Calkins’ New York Reading & Writing Project, which used a constructivist approach. Writers begin with a small moment in their lives and “zoom in” on the details, making it big with descriptions, feelings, thoughts and a message that is relatable. I apply Calkin’s strategies in my own writing, especially keeping the reader  in mind whenever I write.

DG: As a poet, you have participated in art events and organized ekphrastic readings. What types of visual art inspire you most when it comes to writing poetry about it?

KH: What a great question! Visual art ranges widely in style and subject. I tend to choose representational pieces rather than abstracts, with the exception of fantasy poems which delve into unseen worlds, like the dream state or music. Normally, when I write poetry, I see a movie in my mind. When I write an ekphrastic poem, I use a shared screen on my laptop so that I can see the art while writing the poem. I animate the art  using all my senses to imagine the life of the piece, and the words follow.

DG: Do you have a consistent writing schedule or do you work whenever you can?

KH: Both! My goal is to write daily when I’m not traveling, playing music or spending time with family and friends. Ideas are always in me, so when I have a few moments, I’ll do a quick write, which are little tweeks, like making a line more fluid, coming up with better word choices, or rethinking a title. Often, these small changes made a huge impact on the poem.

DG: How would you describe your revision process? Do you go back and forth a lot on lines or do you trust the first impulse?

KH: I edit as I write because I don’t know what comes next until what I’ve written feels solid. Self-editing is such a personal thing. For me, I’ve learned that too much editing leaves the poem so spare that the reader is confused. Too little editing gets wordy and risks losing the reader’s interest. It’s a tricky balance, which is why trusted readers and/or editors to review my work has generally given me guidance. 

DG: Last year or so you mentioned working on a new collection tentatively titled I Was There, Now I’m Here: Crossing Borders, which revolves around the stories of refugees. Are you still in the process of writing the book, and if not, what are you working on?

KH: Thanks for asking about my collection of poems about immigrants and refugees. My term as poet laureate waylaid the book project for the last couple of years, but I’ve  returned to it with fervor. The poems I’ve written still stand as solid contributions and I’m writing new ones from the interviews I did a few years ago through Alameda County’s Refugee Support program. I also have a few more interviews to conduct and write up. My goal is to write the stories of immigrants and refugees in their own voices, not mine. I see myself as the literary engineer, building a framework for their story that communicates their truth. I hope to publish within the year.

DG: What are you reading at the moment?

KH: I’m rereading Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and diving into a new biography titled Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever, by Gavin Edwards. You could say these titles called to me as a balm for living through our current geopolitical storm. As for poetry, the most recent collections I’ve read are by San Francisco Poet Laureate Genny Lim, (also published this volume of California Poets) Facing The Moon, Songs of the Diaspora and Child of War.

Author Bio:

Kathleen Herrmann served as the Co-Poet Laureate for the City of Vallejo from 2024-2026. She has taught youth poetry workshops, hosted open mics, readings and ekphrastic events. She performs spoken word poetry and interviews local authors on OZCAT radio. She has been published in a variety of anthologies, and her first poetry collection, I Was There, Now I’m Here, Refugee Stories is in progress. Kathleen explores unexpected happenings, small moments, sacred spaces and the ongoing struggle for social justice. She believes in the power of poetry to make real change in the world.