Knowing by Mark Cox ~ Poetry Review

Mark Cox pulls no punches in these poems about loving, drinking, traveling, and screwing up his relationships and parts of his life. “Looking back for a low point marking the worst of my insobriety, it might be that signal moment I put out my cigarette in the holy water font of St. Paul’s Catholic church, right in front of the priest. . .” Sometimes sobering, often times funny, but always honest, the poems in Knowing aim for the heart and soul of us all.

Genres: Poetry
Release date: April 11th 2024
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 98 pages

BOOK LINK : Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

What an emotion packed journey through memories, regrets, growth, gratitude, and acceptance. In his book of Poems, Mark Cox led us eloquently through his tortured inner demons of alcoholism, infidelity, divorce, and loss. You could feel the pain in his words as he poured his memories over the pages.

“Ironically, I had to prove how unimportant I truly was before I could be happy being trivial. I needed to stand before God as a complete bufoon to make peace with my imperfectness”

As a self proclaimed “recovering perfectionist” myself – I deeply resonated with that quote. We are made up of so many characteristics that result from mistakes made and learned from. We can not truly accept who we are until we accept the imperfect parts of ourselves.

“I miss my sons and daughter, but then again I have always missed them, even when I held them, I was always reminding myself to be present, to demarcate significance. I was always a little lost within my own home.”

“Yesterday, watching a video of my youngest at two or three, listening to my young, robust voice read his storybook, I found that I couldn’t breathe. I would never be that father again; those years were lost to me.”

“Dear lord, there is such an acute risk in loving anything at all, in allowing something to matter.”

In a bittersweet, nostalgic later half of the book Mark Cox concludes that amid all his regret for past mistakes, he actually wouldn’t change a thing because it is our experiences that form who we are. I couldn’t agree more!

Beautifully written, deeply poetic and insightful, a must read!

I received a review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you, Poetic Book Tours

Mark Cox has authored six other volumes of poetry, the most recent being Readiness (2018) and Sorrow Bread: Poems 1984-2015 (2017). He has a forty-year history of publication in prominent magazines and his honors include a Whiting Writers Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, and The Society of Midland Authors Poetry Prize. He chairs the Department of Creative Writing at UNC Wilmington and teaches in the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Program.