Praise for Mark Cox

On Knowing: Poems

Knowing eases and unsettles, as a good book should. It’s a human book, with no trace of sentimentality. Perhaps its abiding theme is Carpe Diem (seize the day).  Mark Cox has done just that in his manipulation of language. He has wrought numerous memorable poems.  The frustration of a review is one can’t talk about everything one might like to talk about. The poems in Knowing speak for themselves. The best are unforgettable. —Compulsive Reader, Peter Mladinic

On Readiness

Thrilling prose poems from a cherished writer . . . . Cox gives lie to the common notion that prose poetry is too formless to count as real verse . . . . [He] is as careful with diction, rhythm, and even rhyme as one might be if they were writing strict alexandrines—and yet, his poems are as fluid and readable as Jack Kerouac’s novels.

—Kirkus Reviews

On Sorrow Bread

Tony Hoagland has said Mark Cox is "a veteran of the deep water; there's no one like him,” and Thomas Lux identified him as "one of the finest poets of his generation.” No one speaks more effectively of the vital and enduring syntaxes of common, even communal, life.

—Richard Simpson

On Natural Causes

One of the best books I've read in years. In a style that's brash, offbeat, tough-minded and big-hearted, these poems explore the fundamental mysteries of love between parent and child, self and other, self and world. Beyond the inventive language and formal range, what makes this work so memorable is Cox's refusal to look away from even the hardest facts of “unadulterated sorrow.”

—Alan Shapiro