The Man Who Could Freeze Time

Charles Darling began writing poetry in the late sixties, crafting extraordinary poems out of ordinary, everyday events. At the same time, he was teaching courses in literature and writing for Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut, and serving as the Webmaster of a highly regarded Internet grammar and usage hotline. Most of the poems in this second collection convey the perception that whatever is wonderful about the present moment is not likely to last and must be captured and pinned down-frozen in time. Anyone who reads these poems will sense that Darling viewed every situation he encountered as grist for his poetic mill, that as an experience was unfolding, he was simultaneously searching for the words that would capture the moment so that it would stay fixed and not be lost. As the title of this collection suggests, Darling-in writing these poems-was the very man who was continually trying to freeze time. He drew on experiences from his earliest years to the last months of his life, as a son, a husband, a father, a teacher, and simply as one who frequently stopped to contemplate the passing of the seasons and the special beauty of each moment. In September 2004 Darling was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, an event that occasioned his retirement but also created another role that he hoped to make last for a good long run: survivor. Unhappily, he died on February 15, 2006.