Rehearsing Absence: Poems (Richard Wilbur Award, 4)

Rehearsing Absence by Rhina P. Espaillat, recipient of the 2001 Richard Wilbur Award, is a remarkable collection of meticulously-crafted poems that take the seemingly everyday world and imbue it with startling resonance and profundity. John Frederick Nims, who chose one of the author's sonnets for The Howard Nemerov Award, accurately characterized all of the author's work when he wrote, "Her commonplace language hints at an incident of anything but common importance." This ability had not happened by accident. As Timothy Murphy explains in his comments on this "exquisite" new collection, "Rhina Espaillat writes with the measured assurance of one who has given a lifetime to the making of memorable verse." Rehearsing Absence is a truly unique and powerful collection in which Rhina P. Espaillat, with her maturity of vision, lyrical gifts, and an uncommon craftsmanship, presents poem after evocative poem that examines the world around us and helps us to see it new.