Overview

Lately contends with the issues of life elongating, if we're lucky enough, and does so with bluntness and thoughtfulness and a certain amount of wit. When love fades and our dead haunt us, when the body reveals its follies and the scars add up, when ""hope's canteen runs dry"" and God turns their head, where do we find joy? And what of the mysterious border that separates life and death, those of us approaching one side, our passports open, and those on the nether side whom we love and have lost, how do we keep from giving up to grief? More importantly, how do we reconcile our yearning for certainty with the knowledge that we can never really be certain? Lately takes us on a journey, a kind of search party, hunting for hope and mercy and the surprising light that drives us inward, toward it.

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Reviews

In Lately, Charles S. 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

Author Information

Charles S. Cobean is the second son of a Cold War submarine captain and moved from base to base throughout his youth. He was educated at Vanderbilt and UCLA, and has had poems placed in publications such as Rattle, MORIA, Poets Online, Western Humanities Review, Poem, Jacaranda Review, Aura, Brownstone Poets Anthology, Sense & Sensibility, Fixed and Free Quarterly, Cumberland Poetry Review, and others. One of his poems was nominated for a 2025 Pushcart Prize.

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