All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents
No relationship is more personal, yet universal, than that of parent and child. These richly detailed poems connect readers with their own experiences in that most fundamental of relationships, and are poignant reminders that the lives of those closest to us sometimes offer the deepest mysteries.
“domesticity”
pampered little girl
no crystal ball to warn you
of dirty laundry mountains.
From “How My Father Learned to Cook”:
Because of the tomatoes in a neighbor’s garden,
my father learned to cook. Because of late summer
home-grown Indiana tomatoes, drooping on the vine
my father learned to cook. Imagine him at twelve leaning
over the fence of the neighbor’s garden curious but shy,
and the neighbor pointing to the open gate.
Imagine father digging in the soil, caught in the rhythm
of the gardener’s dance
and later handing his surprised mother
the overstuffed paper bag.
A pretty story, but it never happened; here’s what did:
Charles Coe’s poetry and prose have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, and his poems have been set to music by composers Julia Carey, Beth Denisch, and Robert Moran. Coe also writes feature articles, book reviews, and interviews for Harvard Magazine, Northeastern University Law Review, and the Boston Phoenix. He is also a jazz vocalist, performing and recording throughout New England.
“Reading these remarkable poems is like the shadowed, soul-affirming joy of discovering old family photographs in a worn grocery bag in your attic; yes, I am here in this body on this earth because of them, this man and woman who loved and lived and did the best they knew how to do, even if it did not always seem like quite enough at the time…. A deeply evocative and loving rendering of Charles Coe’s persevering mother and father. This book does what art is supposed to do; it delivers to the reader his or her own stumbling, flawed, largely well-meaning flesh and blood portals to this world. An immensely satisfying collection.” —Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog and Townie, a Memoir
“Coe writes about his parents with warmth, insight and grace…with celebration as well as regret. A collection that captures the tenderness and intimacy within the black family. His words construct a path from the innocence of childhood into the winter of aging. His book will outlive much of the poetry being written today.” —E. Ethelbert Miller
Charles Coe is a poet, prose writer, teacher of writing and a musician (vocals and didgeridoo).
Charles has written five books of poetry: “Picnic on the Moon,” “All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents,” “Memento Mori,” “Purgatory Road, and “Charles Coe: New and Selected Works,” all published by Leapfrog Press. He has also written “Spin Cycles,” a novella published by Gemma Media. “Peach Pie,” a short film by filmmaker Roberto Mighty based on his poem “Fortress,” has been shown in film festivals nationwide. “Charles Coe: Man of Letters,” also created by Roberto Mighty, was named “Best Short Documentary” at the Roxbury Film Festival.
Charles received a fellowship in poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and was selected by the Associates of the Boston Public Library as a “Boston Literary Light in 2014” and spent 2017 as an Artist-in-Residence for the city of Boston, creating a project that collected oral histories of people who live and work in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood.
Teaching poetry and prose is a special interest. Charles teaches in a wide variety of settings, including grade schools, high schools, colleges, writing conferences and workshops. He has served as poet-in-residence at Wheaton College and at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York and has taught in Dingle, Ireland for the Bay Path University MFA Abroad program. He is also an adjunct professor of English at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, teaching poetry and non fiction in the low-residency MFA program.
He was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana but has lived in the Boston area since 1975.
