Charles O. Hartman has published eight collections of poetry, including Downfall of the Straight Line (Arrowsmith Press, 2024), as well as books on jazz and song (Jazz Text, Princeton 1991) and on computer poetry (Virtual Muse, Wesleyan 1996). His Free Verse (Princeton 1981) is still in print (Northwestern 1996), and Verse: An Introduction to Prosody was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2015. In 2020 he co-edited, with Martha Collins, Pamela Alexander, and Matthew Krajniak, a volume on Wendy Battin for the Unsung Masters series. He is Poet in Residence Emeritus at Connecticut College. He plays jazz guitar.

Other poems by Charles O. Hartman in Verse Daily:
January 20, 2024:   "The Wandering" "The names on the street signs..."

Other poems on the web by Charles O. Hartman:
"Fascination"
"Terzanelle"
"Milkweed"
Four poems

Charles O. Hartman's Website.

About Downfall of the Straight Line:

"Charles O. Hartman's singular grasp of musical possibilities is what makes his new collection of poems, Downfall of the Straight Line, such a thrilling read. For his 'rehearsals/ of the opulent impromptu, ' as he writes in his dramatic monologue, 'The Pianos, ' inevitably lead to revelations about the ways in which our most essential relationships contain their own time and key signatures, rhythms, and melodies. Lovers create 'a song of sorts, a currency: words we knew.' Hartman has a gift for charting 'the niceties of geometry, ' wherever they may be found - in the sky, on the water, in the beloved's gestures. He writes, 'here are keys but to what kingdom.' The answers ring out from every page of this astonishing book."
—Christopher Merrill