Lately by Charles S. Cobean

In Lately, Charles Cobean looks unflinchingly at the harder parts of life: the death of one’s parents and friends, the unraveling of a marriage, and the challenges of aging. Cobean’s wry humor, surprising syntax, and rich images ground the collection, ensuring it is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying. In these poems, Cobean wonders “what time has done,” noting that “there’s a mercy in there somewhere / if only I could find it.” We are lucky readers to be brought along on his engaging, provocative search for mercy, meaning, and connection.

–Amie Whittemore, author of Nest of Matches (2024)

In Lately, poet Charles S. Cobean offers deft, fervent explorations of the razor-thin yet unyielding line between life and death, suggesting the knowledge we crave about mortality won’t save us, and asking “how do we go on?” In a familiar, conversational tone, the speaker claims his “half-cup tilts toward emptiness,” and certainly grief is palpable throughout this collection—as both a devastating force and daily companion. Among questions of finitude, God, time, memory loss, relationships, and the personal struggle against darkness, Cobean employs memorable language and imagery (“A child leaves a handful and comes back a fist”), leavens his ponderings with humor (“I used to hand out fortunes in bars like a boozy Johnny Appleseed”), and ultimately rewards readers with hope, redemption, grit, and light.

–Annette Sisson, author of Winter Sharp with Apples (2024)

Charles S. Cobean’s chapbook, Lately, delves into the author’s psyche, his poetry a soliloquy on love and loss. His words are tender yet not always, even on the concept of religion. He, like many of us, questions the “desultory” lifestyle and searches for the reason for existence. Cobean’s poetry is one person’s introspection that most can relate to.

–Patricia Carragon, curator/editor-in-chief, Brownstone Poets and editor of Sense & Sensibility Haiku Journal, Brooklyn, NY