WS Chronicle

By Judie Holcomb-Pack

Dr. Charles Fort, a new resident of Arbor Acres Retirement Community, shared his poetry and told stories about his late wife during a reading on Feb. 8 in Piner Hall at Arbor Acres. He got a chuckle from the audience when he announced, “My stay here has been 99% positive. I’ll speak about the other 1% later.”  

Fort spoke about his late wife Wendy’s last illness and passing. His wife, a professional dancer, would sometimes accompany him at his poetry readings and dance to poems from his book, “The Afro Psalms.” He shared the poem he wrote for her memorial service and said that “these are the saddest words.”

Dr. Fort moved here last September from Wilmington, North Carolina. He’s a former college professor of poetry and founded the creative writing course at UNC-Wilmington. Fort’s writing reflects the Black experiences that he and his family have faced throughout their lives. His wife, who was white, passed away in 2001 when his daughters were young. He raised two very accomplished biracial girls as a single dad. 

Both of Dr. Fort’s daughters are in theater. One of his daughters, Claire Fort, teaches acting and directing in the School of Drama at UNCSA. She is the reason Fort moved to Winston-Salem. Claire and her sister, Shelley, have collaborated on projects together. 

Dr. Fort received the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Siena Heights University and Faculty Scholar Awards from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and Southern Connecticut State University. Dr. Fort is the author of six poetry books and ten chapbooks, as well as novels and a memoir. He is working on a book, “The Last Black Hippie in Connecticut,” that is scheduled to be out in 2025.

One of Fort’s poems written for his wife is “Valentine,”  which expresses the great love he had for her.

For more information, please visit his website at https://www.poetcharlesfort.com/.

Valentine

By Charles Fort

When we met I was half-in-love with you.

My heart-shaped scar was your Valentine

flask of moonshine, fine wine, a wedding vow?

You gave me your breath and I gave you my own.

We walked under the arc of human color

and you held my arms as if you never wanted

to let go of this needful widowed man.

When we met I was half-in-love with you.

You gave me your breath and I gave you my own.

Years writing in the dark off the light of my body

I finally sent you my new book of poems.

You danced without music or men.

The train wheels made the buffalo stampede

and jump their bright hula-hoops of desire.

Were the two of us lovers and love at first sight

bottled in a flare of Eros and circumstance

extinguished by Brown Zorro in a ragged cape?

You gave me your breath and I gave you my own.

When we met I was half-in-love with you.

“Valentine” by Charles Fort appeared in “The Heart is Improvisational”  (An Anthology in Poetic Forms) Guernica Editions 2017, and “We Did Not Fear the Father” (New and Selected Poems) Red Hen Press 2012.