In the Waiting Room

These new and selected poems by Robert Riche are a delight - not just because they welcome and invite the reader inside, but they reach out with humanity, sometimes with sadness, other times with rollicking good humor and wit. The collection is varied, encompassing nature, mortality, the grief of warfare, and the ordinary events of everyday life. "Robert Riche's poems are a fine blend of lyricism and accessibility, romance and humor, historical perspective and a glimpse of the interior life of a 20th, now 21st, century man and poet. Riche writes about ideas and core truths, always with a subtle and graceful touch. He confronts politics, love, mortality, and our foibles and frailties between. What he doesn't do is fall prey to naval gazing, sentimentality, or trendy word acrobatics. When you finish reading a Robert Riche poem, you feel, well, richer for the experience, spoken to and satisfied. You sense that something important has been revealed. What else could you want of a poet?" - Connie Everett, Publisher/Editor Pudding Magazine "Robert Riche's poems gird us against a world largely devoid of the poetic. His tender, mature, and unrestrained writing acknowledges the ragged edges of the everyday." - John Smelcer, Assoc. Publisher and Poetry Editor Rosebud Magazine. "Most of us see old age as the end of the parade, a finality. Robert Riche's collection of poems disabuses us of this notion by exploring one's senior years in an active and completely unique way. The divergence of children's paths in life, some curmudgeonly observations about hugging and even the ageing of a favorite pet have their place here in this wonderful collection of poetry." -- Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Editor-in-Chief Quill and Parchment, 7 time Pushcart Prize nominee