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From the United States

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2012

In searching for Mr. Crawford's new book: "The Empty Chair" I came upon this volume that I had purchased awhile ago. I thought then that I should review this work, and somehow forgot. It's never too late, I hope. I was lucky enough to be a student of Mr. Crawford for Poetry and Advanced Poetry, and had the benefit of seeing his process firsthand, and learning from it. Later on, as I became an English teacher in California and in New York, I used examples of Mr. Crawford's work when teaching poetry units, because his meter is perfect, and his use of rhyme both imaginative and succinct. Somehow I feel when reading his work, "Why hadn't I thought that, and in that way?" While students like Shakespeare, they have a hard time with the old English. They all know the first line from Sonnet 43, but again, it looses it's relevance in the modern classroom. Mr. Crawford's work allows more modern scope to be introduced, while still being formal, allowing for more comprehension and (hopefully!) retention (Just not on Spring Friday afternoons...). It's a teacher's personal choice what to share when imparting the standards, and it's good to share what you also love and appreciate. This work is full of gorgeous work, sonorous beauty, and subtle erotic undertones that allow for the imagination. I so look forward to his new volume.

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CritThink

Unpretentious and beautiful verse

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2012

It could have been Frost, but it isn't. I just have the feeling Frost would have weighed the same passages down with big fat stones of meter, rhyme and meaning. It would have ended up like something that kids, at the time poetry was beaten into them, would have had to have read. I would have avoided it then and now. Instead, it sits, unpretentious, in a little book, regrettably, few children will ever pick up. It has it all, rhyme, meter, and meaning. But none of them collide and make a mess of it, collapsing the particular while grasping too boldly for the infinite. It's the wonder of taking a few moments and expanding upon them in a way that allows us to know to the narrator, his experience and every single relationship he alludes to, and there are many, as it ripples outward, connecting us all. The verse, the rhyme are to be respected but they know their place to support. And so all the effort that I know went into it falls away in my reading of it, and it strikes me a wonder of simplicity.

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John Michael Albert

Beautiful Craft

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2005

I happen to know Robert Crawford. He teaches and reads here in the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire. I have always admired his essential modesty, his profound appreciation for craft, and his unrelenting pursuit of it. If you're the kind of person who looks at antique furniture and are taken by the way it reveals and conceals the years of training, skill and craftsmanship that went into it, as opposed to how it's going to fit into your entryway or sewing room, or go with the new Persian carpet, Crawford's poetry is for you. It's grace. It's classical form and balance. It's the courage to take on the oldest poetic subjects and themes on, again, with the confidence that something enduring and beautiful will result. (We'll call it the Michelangelo Hypothesis -- why would a man approach a block of marble with a hammer, knowing as much as he did of Greek statuary?) And, incidentally, this book contains the best "Christmas" poem ever, "The Love of One." It's in search of just such gems that I read so much.

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E. Crapo

When Frost Comes Home

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2005

If Robert Frost were to live in rural New England today, this may be what he'd be writing. "Town Roads," "The Road Agent," "A Row of Stones"-all there in the first few pages-are tributes to this New England sage. Although, I'm not sure "Frostian" is the only way I would classify Crawford's work. He hold strong to the old tradition of meter-something the world of today's poetry is missing (for without a tradition, it cannot be broken). In TOO MUCH EXPLANATION..., Crawford has reminded us that sonnets are not just for the classroom. "French Braids," "Exposed," and "At the Top of the Stairs" keep us grounded in our own familiar realm of erotic romance while retaining the skill of master's gone by. They are both sensual and classic. Furthermore, Crawford's "When Boston Wins the Series" (perhaps his signature work) is simply prophetic-a mantra that paid off when the book went to print.

This is a work that can be appreciated by students and masters alike.

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