Charles And Christine: Poems From A Son #1 of 3: Post 917

This is the second iteration of this book. You will find 2 new poems never published in any of my other books and 12 from 2018. However, every one of the older poems has been revised, in many cases essentially rewritten, and I believe made much stronger. Now there are a total of 29. The poems are organized according to the rough chronology of my parents’ lives. The year I wrote each is recorded next to the title. If you have a copy of the 2018 book, you can safely pitch it. Actually, please pitch it.

Without meaning to do so, I’ve written an emotional history of my mother and father. I’ve stayed true to the facts of their lives as described in these poems. The perception of their characters and of their inner lives is my own.

As I’ve aged their influence on me continues to grow, maybe more so in these years after their deaths. They have a hold on me. If there is one refrain I repeat to myself and to my brother and sister it is, “How lucky we were to have been their children.”

*The monologues of the demented woman and of my mother in the poem Her Hands, Her Voice were meticulously recorded by me, word for word, as each spoke. My mother’s gift for language never left her.

My Father At 4 in the Influenza Epidemic of 1918 (2019)