The Empty Chair

The Empty Chair by Robert W. Crawford, recipient of the 2011 Richard Wilbur Award, is a remarkably powerful collection of exquisitely-crafted poetry. As David Middleton has pointed out, "The poems in this book range widely over many themes including the mysteries of family relationships and of nature; philosophical questions relating to the laws of chemistry and physics; the likenesses of things revealed by metaphor as compared to things in and of themselves; and moral questions extending from the sophistic language of assisted suicide websites to the fall of great civilizations." But most of these memorable poems are set within the realities of the New England landscape, and they affect the heart, mind, and soul with a poignancy and poetic maturity that reminds us of the genius of Robert Frost.