Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On the first Monday of February, Stone Soup has the pleasure of welcoming Charles Coe, who will be the first performer for our celebration of National Poetry Month.
Charles Coe is the winner of an Artist Fellowship in Poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and now coordinates the Council's literature and music grant programs. His work has appeared in numerous literary reviews and magazines. A volume of his poetry, Picnic on the Moon, has been published by Leapfrog Press. Charles also appears on two spoken-word CDs: Get Ready for Boston, a collection of stories and songs about Boston neighborhoods, and on One Side of the River, an anthology of Cambridge and Somerville poets.
His poems have been set to music by composers Julia Carey, Beth Denisch and Robert Moran. In addition to poetry, Charles writes feature articles and book reviews that have appeared in publications such as Harvard Magazine, The Boston Phoenix, and The Boston Globe. Charles is also co-chair of the Boston Chapter of the National Writers Union--a labor union for freelance writers.
Inventory
For the poets of Norfolk Correctional Institution
As a child, I kept track
of certain things: crack in the sidewalk
between the bus stop and school,
names of streets between the bridge
and our family's house,
toy soldiers lined up on a shelf.
Now the list of things I've lost, or forgotten,
or thrown away, at times seems longer
than the list of what remains; this feeling
often visits uninvited, late at night,
when every breath is a footstep
measuring the miles till dawn.
But this morning, when I walked across the yard,
the sun suddenly shoved through the clouds
to warm my face,
and later I was surprised by a small kindness
from an unexpected source. This life
is not the one I would have chosen;
but I will try to keep an open hand
for the gifts is spreads each day across my path,
like Easter eggs hidden in the grass.
--Charles Coe
