Readiness

Cox's fifth book is a collection of prose poems that range from third-person projections to personal memoir. Though sometimes set in the Sixties and Seventies, their nostalgia is not an easy one. The poems are marked by the anxieties and ills of their time, many of which seem just as true today. Cox has been publishing for over thirty years and he brings a sophisticated psychological perspective to bear on the varied occasions for poems. The poems are big-hearted, rich in detail and lyrical, when called for. Their rhythms and tonal atmospheres are masterful. This book has been a long time coming and it was worth the wait.