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On Sunday, Jan. 25, Oblong Books and Music in Millerton will host a reading from Charde's new book at 2:30 p.m.
Author Pat Schneider, founder of Amherst Writers and Artists, describes "Branch in His Hand" as a requiem sung by a mother whose boy falls to his death.
"The reader will not ever forget the Italy that he loved or the wall from which he fell," said Schneider. "Charde takes us to Italy, to the wall. In these brutally honest, beautiful poems we face the death of one who is loved dearly."
Charde, a retired family therapist, said that she had always written poetry before her children were born; however, after the loss of her son, she began again in earnest.
"I didn't write very much until after Jeff died, she said. "Then I realized that's what I had to do. It saved my life. The first poems I wrote were terrible, sentimental, too filled with emotion. My poetry is very emotional but I try to carry the emotion with detail and to present the situation to let the reader feel the feelings."
The past 15 years have contributed to this book as it is both an emotional release and a personal history for Charde.
"Losing a child shatters a family and affects the marriage tremendously," she said. "If also affects everybody in the lives of the people who have lost a child. This book is my attempt to talk about what happened. It begins with what my life and our lives were like before he died. The middle of the book is when we got the news."
Her son's accident was a sudden experience for her family, said Charde.
"We had just been travelling with him for three weeks and then he died In Rome," she said. "That is important to the book. There is a lot in the book about Italy; we had to go right back and identify him. Ten years later we went back; my husband wasn't ready to go back before then, so there is a whole section on going back."
The "in-between" time that her family stuggled with is also in the book in poems that discuss the pain of resurrecting a semblance of day-to-day reality after a tragedy.
"I remember saying to my husband when we were bringing clothes to dress the body, 'How will we pay our bills and mow the lawn and go about the business of living?' I couldn't imagine it. He said 'We will survive.' And we've done more than that I think."
Previously Charde had published two chapbooks, "Bad Girl at the Altar Rail" and "Four Trees Down from Ponte Sisto," the first dealing with her own personal journey growing up in the Catholic Church and the second about her son's death and its aftermath.
"A Branch in His Hand" is her first full-length collection. She has also edited and published an anthology of poetry, "I Am Not a Juvenile Delinquent," which is the product of her weekly writing workshops at Touchstone, a residential treatment facility that she has volunteered at for almost a decade.
Charde also runs writing retreats and workshops for women out of her home and on Block Island to give creative women a safe and supportive environment to grow their poetic voice. "I get people to write from prompt writing - it is raw and helps people get out of their head, which is the first thing people need to do," said Charde. "It's hard to do alone. Journaling is also not that helpful because it can be focusing so much on ourselves telling and not showing. A good writer knows how to show; a good poet can tell me the story. Don't tell me how you feel; I want to figure out for myself."
As Charde describes her first attempts at penning poetry again as relatively unsuccessful, she encourages all blossoming writers to take heart and have the courage to keep going as well as be open to response.
"Tearing people down doesn't help anybody - it just makes them stop writing," she said. "Everyone's work has strength, but you have to show up for your life. Being a good writer is same as living a real life. People have to be open to the shadow part of themselves. Even in a love poem, you have to put some of the bad things in there so it's real."
With its weighty subject matter, Charde said that sharing her poetry with audiences is always a profound experience.
"My husband says that the audience is quiet - somber and riveted," she said. "It's totally silent and I feel a profound connection with the audience. We are all entering into a sacred space together. We almost become one. I don't know if it's my subject matter but I want people to be moved. I want to be moved by a poem, not a Hallmark card."
"A Branch in His Hand" is available through Oblong Books and Music, Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble's online bookstore. Local bookstores can also order the collection if they do not already have it in stock, Charde said.
For more information on Charde's Jan. 25 reading at Oblong Books and Music in Millerton, call 518-789 - 3797.
