Life Lines: Selected Poems 1990-2009 is a collection of 201 poems representing nearly two decades of work by acclaimed upstate New York poet, Charles James. A natural maverick, James learned through life's experiences that purpose and meaning are within the person, not "out there somewhere." Charlie, as he's known to friends, says "jubilation and grief are all part of living." Led to poetry by his grandfather, Charlie wrote "abominable trash" for too long. "Now I try and I do with no way of knowing how." As for his 6-1/2 years in federal courts to affirm his Ist Amendment rights, he only shrugs. He wonders what makes others ask if he'd do it again. "Impossible," he says. "Any more than I can stick my foot in the same stream twice. There is no again. Everything in life is once." James' poems express life's lessons with urgency and beauty, making his work stand with the best of contemporary free verse.