Return of the Crows

In his fourth poetry book, Return of the Crows, Charles Halsted explores childhood during World War II, coming of age in the “flat-top fifties,” ruminations on presidents past and present, and reflections on aging and loss. A former physician, Halsted gains inspiration for his poems from the mundane (“Trash Trundle”) to the risque (“The Hooker and the Hooked”) to the joys of life (“What I Cherish”).Editorial ReviewsReviewPraise for the poetry of Charles Halsted:Charles Halsted’s Return of the Crows “exemplifies a learned career as a doctor and a prolific writer. As generous across the page as he surely was in his work caring for people, his work demonstrates the profound worth of memories and the invaluable worth of depicting them. With its coupling of tenderness and wit, Halsted’s poetry is a true delight.”—Courtney Kampa, author of Our Lady of Not Asking Why“From a New England childhood to fly-fishing in The West to the Kennedy assassination, ... Charles Halsted takes us on a journey that is as rich as it viscerally stirring. On Razor-Thin Tires challenges contemporary America to take an honest look at its history, including its horrors and fissures.”—Caroline Goodwin, author of Trapline and Old Snow, White Sun“Extenuating Circumstances is an autobiography in verse that carries its subject, physician Charles Halsted, from early years in New England to his eighties in northern California.… This lifelong series of poems is as tantalizing and as satisfying to read as it surely was inspiriting to experience.”—Hannah Stein, author of Earthlight, Schools of Flying Fish, and A Broken Music“Writing as a physician, he knows how to save someone’s life and also how to stand ‘silently by, awe stricken.’ With humor, with reverence, in awe of the ‘master molecule’ and awe of ‘orange-flamed trees,’ these moments presented to the reader can be shocking, heartbreaking, and heartfelt. In Breaking Eighty, the fleeting moment is caught and held with tenderness. These are poems brimming with life.”—Lauren Hilger, author of Lady Be GoodAbout the AuthorCharles Halsted graduated from Stanford University (BA) and University of Rochester (MD). His distinguished career in academic medicine at the University of California, Davis, included teaching, clinical practice, and biomedical research that led to 105 original research papers and dozens of book chapters, review articles, and editorials. He also spent ten years as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He prepared for his career as a poet in courses offered by Stanford Continuing Studies and in poetry classes and workshops, including the Community of Writers in Olympic Valley. His poems have been published in three dozen journals, including Ekphrastic Review, Hektoen International, Snapdragon, and Tule Review, and in his three books: Breaking Eighty, Extenuating Circumstances, and On Razor-Thin Tires. Read more