“Richard Widerkehr’s In the Presence of Absence is a book of loss and recovery, grief

and wonder. These are poems informed with clarity and compassion, and a quiet

lyricism in confronting the mortal world, the death of parents, and life-threatening

illness. There is a freshness and ease of manner to Widerkehr’s writing and at times

a kind of other worldly aura, ‘that strange gift from the other side.’ There is as well a

deep gratitude that infuses these poems, that grounds them in the here and now. He

is a poet who has...